i>0. 

1      //•///('* /«'"/»' '-s 
I 


"WOOD. 


UBRfiRf 


OUR 

ENGLISH  BIBLE 


AND    ITS 


ANCESTORS. 


BY 


TREADWELL  WALDEN, 

RECTOR  OF  ST.   PAUL*S  CATHEDRAL,  INDIANAPOLIS. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PORTER  AND  COATES, 

822  Chestnut  Street. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  1871,  by 

PORTER   &   COATES, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington, 

MEAKS  *  DUSESBERY,  STEREOTYPER8.  B.  B.  ASIIMEAI),  PRINTER. 


To 

The  Congregation 

of 

St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  Indianapolis, 
This  Account  of  the  Origin  and  Growth 

of 

the  English  Bible, 
-already  given  to  them  in  the  form  of  Lectures — 


IS 


Affectionately  Dedicated. 


PREFACE. 


PEE  design  of  this  little  volume  is  to  give 
a  descriptive  narrative  of  the  long  and 
remarkable  struggle  of  the  Bible  into  English — 
through  policies  of  state,  through  dogmas  of 
the  church,  through  crudities  of  public  opinion 
and  through  changes  in  the  language — .with  a 
view :  First,  to  suggest  a  greater  reverence 
than  ever  for  a  work  so  wisely  and  heroically 
produced,  and  second,  to  prepare  the  ordinary 
reader  to  form  an  intelligent  idea  of  the  move- 
ment toward  a  more  perfect  and  readable 


P  REFA  CE. 


Bible,  which  has  already  begun,  and  which  is 
certain,  if  that  movement  retains  the  impetus 
of  its  history,  not  to  stop  until  its  end  be 
accomplished. 

The  full  account,  external  and  internal,  of 
the  English  Bible  has  never  yet  been  written, 
and  all  the  numerous  works  which  have  been 
composed  on  the  subject,  are  only  contributions 
to  it,  but  when  exhaustively  executed  it  will 
prove  to  be  a  wonderous  and  fascinating  story, 
not  alone  to  scholars  and  divines,  but  to  any 
mind  which  is  aware  of  the  exquisite  delicacy 
of  language  in  itself  as  a  material  to  be 
wrought  up,  of  the  growth  and  development 
of  the  peculiar  English  of  the  Bible,  and  is 
quick  to  see  the  changes  on  its  surface  made 
by  the  passing  clouds  of  the  century  in  which 
it  rose  into  being. 

This  brief  narrative,  drawn  from  many  of 
these  sources,  it  is  hoped  may  give  the  reader 
a  vivid  general  impression  of  the  singular  evo- 


PREFACE.  vii 

lution  of  Bible  out  of  Bible  until  the  present 
noble  Version  was  achieved. 

As  these  pages  were  written  and  delivered 
first  in  the  form  of  parochial  lectures,  any 
redundant  picturesqueness  of  illustration  will 
be  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  that  fact,  and 
doubtless  pardoned. 

T.  W. 

St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 

Indianapolis,  May  1871. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  proposed  New  Revision  of  the  Bible.  A  movement  like 
that  in  King  James's  time.  The  power  and  beauty  of  the  pre- 
sent Version.  With  many  the  Version  supersedes  the  Ori- 
ginals. Conventional  and  literary  admiration  of  it.  The 
original  purpose  and  idea  of  the  Version.  A  diversity  of 
translations  thought  to  be  no  injury  to  the  popular  faith. 
The  best  argument  for  its  revision  would  be  a  review  of  its 
history Page  9-17 


I.  THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT. 
THE  BIBLE  FOR  THE  PEOPLE. — EARLY  SAXON  VERSIONS. — THE 

VERSION  OF  JOHN  WTCLIFFE. — ITS  REVISION  BV  JOHN  PURVEY. 

Books  in  manuscript  The  Bible  doubly  locked  up.  The 
Greek  and  Latin  Churches  prohibiting  translations.  The 
English  Bible  wrought  into  the  history  of  the  English  Refor- 
mation. Tendency  of  the  English  Church  to  encourage 
translations.  Early  Saxon  and  Norman  Version.  Only  read 
by  the  educated  among  the  people.  The  century  before  Wyc- 
liffe.  The  rise  of  the  English  tongue.  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge Universities.  Wyclifie  like  Luther.  Modes  of  publi- 
cation in  Wycliffe's  day.  Chaucer  and  Mandeville.  The 
effect  of  his  Version.  Failure  of  official  attempts  to  suppress 
it.  Its  revision  by  Purvey.  Greek  and  Hebrew  as  yet  un- 


x  CONTENTS. 

known.  The  Version  from  the  Latin.  But  the  style  adopted 
by  Wycliffe  since  retained  in  every  other  Version.  The  first 
express  endeavor  to  give  the  Scriptures  to  the  people.  The 
Version  not  a  progenitor  of  the  present  one.  Its  glory  in 
starting  the  English  and  Continental  Reformation.  The 
Lollards.  Burning  of  Wycliffe's  bones.  John  Huss  and 
Jerome  of  Prague,  disciples  of  Wycliffe.  Ancient  English 
independence  of  the  Papal  Power Page  18-45 

II.  THE  AGE  OF   PRINTING. 
THE    FIRST    GREEK    TESTAMENT. — ERASMUS. — CARDINAL  XIME- 

NES. — THE  PATRIARCH-VERSION  OF  WILLIAM  TYNDALE. 
The  Latin  Bible  the  first  printed  book.  The  Revival  of  Learn- 
ing. The  study  of  Hebrew  and  of  Greek.  Erasmus.  Dean 
Colet.  Sir  Thomas  More.  Erasmus  at  Cambridge.  He  ad- 
vocates the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  for  the  people.  He 
undertakes  the  publication  of  a  Greek  text  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Cardinal  Ximenes  engages  in  the  same  work  for  the 
whole  Bible.  The  text  of  Erasmus  issued  with  the  works  of 
St.  Jerome.  The  text  of  Erasmus  the  first  published.  This 
text  the  basis  of  all  future  editions.  The  first  English  Ver- 
sion made  from  the  Greek  was  by  William  Tyndale.  Henry 
VIII.  Luther's  Version  of  the  Bible.  Birth  and  education  of 
Tyndale.  His  controversies  with  Church  dignitaries.  His 
resolve  to  translate  the  Scriptures.  The  general  preparation 
for  the  undertaking.  He  applies  to  the  Bishop  of  London 
without  success.  Retires  to  the  Continent.  Issues  Matthew 
and  Mark.  Forced  to  flee  to  Worms.  Frightful  reports  of 
his  work  reach  England.  His  stratagem  for  getting  the  Ver- 
sion into  England.  Its  opposite  reception  by  the  people,  and 
by  the  authorities.  In  order  to  disarm  opposition  he  omits 
his  "notes  and  comments."  His  repeated  revisions  of  his 
Version.  He  undertakes  a  Version  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Issues  Genesis  and  Deuteronomy,  and  finally  the  whole  Pen- 
tateuch and  Jonah.  A  great  change  in  England — Henry 
breaks  with  the  Pope.  Anne  Boleyn's  interposition.  An 
edition  preparing  by  the  royal  printer.  Tyndale  betrayed  and 
imprisoned.  Cranmer's  attempt  to  issue  a  new  Version.  Crom- 
well's attempt.  Coverdale's  Version.  Tyndale  executed.  The 
character  of  Tyndale.  Excellencies  and  peculiarities  of  his 
Version.  Its  individuality  and  originality.  Its  influence  on 
the  present  Version.  The  favorable  condition  of  the  En_ 
language  when  it  was  executed.  A  Version  should  be  a  <i 
impersonal  transfer  from  the  original, Puge  46-96 


CONTENTS.  xi 

III.  THE   SIX    LINEAL    DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  PA- 
TRIARCH-VERSION. 

THE  BIBLES  OF  COVERDALE,  ROGERS,  CROMWELL,  CRANMER,  GE- 
NEVA,    AND     THE      BISHOPS. THE     GREEK      TESTAMENTS     0» 

STEPHENS  AND  BEZA. — THE  HEBREW  TEXT. 
The  work  of  Erasmus  and  Tyndale  incomplete.  The  Greek 
Text  of  Stephens.  The  Greek  Text  of  Beza.  The  succes- 
sors of  Tyndale.  Tyndale's  work  on  the  Old  Testament. 
Cranmer's  first  attempt  to  issue  the  English  Bible.  Crom- 
well's first  attempt.  Coverdale.  Coverdale  issues  the  whole 
Bible.  Characteristics  of  his  Version.  Utility  of  a  diversity 
of  translations.  Coverdale's  Bibie  licensed  by  the  king. 
Tyndale  and  Coverdale  compared.  John  Rogers.  His  Ver- 
sion a  revision  of  Tyndale  and  Coverdale.  Its  Success. 
Rogers's  Bible  the  starting-point  of  all  subsequent  revisions. 
Cromwell's  second  attempt.  Coverdale  again.  Romanists  in 
Paris  interrupt  the  work.  The  Great  Bible.  Craniner's 
revision  of  it.  Its  use  enjoined  by  the  king.  The  popular 
delight.  Scenes  in  St.  Paul's.  Posthumous  triumph  of  Tyn- 
dale. Edward  VI.  Greater  freedom  to  the  Bible  in  any  Ver- 
sion. Formation  of  the  Prayer-Book.  The  prosecution  under 
Mary.  The  revision  of  the  Bible  at  Geneva.  Its  remarkable 
merit.  The  product  of  independent  minds.  Providential  ad- 
vantages. Characteristics  which  gave  it  success.  Its  Bible 
Dictionary.  An  unfortunate  novelty.  The  paragraphs 
broken  into  verses.  The  Apocrypha  omitted.  Accession  of 
Elizabeth.  Return  of  the  Bible  to  England  in  the  Genevan 
Version.  The  release  of  all  the  Versions.  The  greater  po- 
pularity of  the  Genevan.  No  official  intolerance,  as  yet,  of 
many  Versions.  Liberal  policy  of  Archbishop  Parker.  His 
project  of  a  new  Version.  Its  successful  issue,  but  no  assump- 
tion of  finality  for  it.  The  rivalry  of  the  Versions,  Page  97-145 

IV.  THE  PRESENT  BIBLE. 

ITS  FORMATION. — ITS  GKNERAL  EXCELLENCE. — POINTS  OF  REVI- 
SION AND  IMPROVEMENT. 

Neither  the  Genevan  Version  nor  the  Bishops'  satisfactory. 
James  I.  The  conflict  of  the  Church  party  and  the  Puritan 
party.  The  Hampton  Court  Conference.  A  new  Version 
proposed.  The  king  favors  the  undertaking.  The  plan  of  it 
elaborated.  Composition  of  the  Companies  who  were  to  make 
the  revision.  The  project  looked  upon  as  only  a  new  en- 
deavor. The  principles  of  the  new  revision.  The  revision 


xii  CONTENTS. 

simultaneously  commenced  in  1607  at  London,  Oxford,  and 
Cambridge.  The  process.  Published  after  the  labor  of  four 
years.  How  it  came  to  be  the  "Authorized  Version."  The 
strange  fate  and  experience  of  the  Genevan  Bible  before  it 
went  out  of  use.  The  final  acceptance  and  permanence  of  the 
Authorized  Version.  The  elements  of  its  essential  perfection 
and  permanency.  The  elements  of  its  present  imperfection 
and  future  improvement.  A  still  corrupt  original  text.  Pro- 
gress of  textual  criticism.  The  effect  of  this  and  of  time  on 
the  English  text  also.  A  notable  deficiency.  The  Bible  too 
modern.  The  need  of  archaeological  notes  to  revive  its 
ancient  circumstances.  Five  points  of  incompleteness.  Seven 
errors  of  judgment.  The  translators'  imperfect  knowledge  of 
Greek  and  Hebrew.  The  movement  to  revision  a  demand  of 
the  age.  The  historical  argument  for  revision.  No  extensive 
alteration  designed.  The  fiery  test  of  adverse  criticism  has 
revealed  the  truth  of  the  originals.  So  a  thorough  and  fear- 
less revision  will  insure  the  permanency  of  the  work,  and  un- 
fold its  full  power  to  the  age.  Conclusion,  .  .  .  Page  146-195 

APPENDIX, Page  197 


INTRODUCTION. 

IN  Westminster  Abbey,  today,  two     The 
New  Revision  of 

Companies  of  Scholars  are  gath-  the  Bible- 
ered,  engaged  in  translating  the  Scriptures 
anew  into  the  English  tongue, — translating  in 
the  sense  of  subjecting  every  part  of  the  pres- 
ent text  to  a  new  examination,  and  returning 
the  whole  to  the  public,  revised  and  retouched 
wherever  it  shall  prove  an  inadequate  render- 
ing of  the  original  languages.  It  is  a  choice 
assemblage  which  have  this  work  in  hand : 
bishops,  arch-deans,  deans,  canons,  professors, 
doctors  of  divinity,  of  wide-spread  fame  in  the 
English  Church,  and,  associated  with  them, 
men  of  equal  distinction  for  piety,  learning, 
and  scholarship,  who  do  not  conform  to  the 
"  Establishment." 

(9) 


10  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

A   movement       In  many  respects  it  is  a  repetition 

like  that  in  King 

James  8  time.  of  the  celebrated  scene  in  the  time 
of  King  James  the  First,  when  a  chosen  com- 
pany of  scholars  met  and  labored  together  for 
a  number  of  years  in  the  same  great  work. 
In  some  things  the  two  undertakings  differ, 
but  only  in  elements  and  circumstances  pecu- 
liar to  their  time.  In  other  and  essential 
things  they  are  identical.  They  are  identical 
in  the  endeavor  to  meet  exactly  the  same 
necessity,  and  in  being,  each  in  its  own  way, 
the  result  of  a  long  period  of  agitation  and 
discussion.  It  does  not  matter  whether  a 
King  appointed  the  one  company  or  a  Con- 
vocation has  appointed  the  other,  the  latter  is 
a  lineal  and  natural  successor  of  the  former 
in  the  progress  of  the  race  and  of  the  language, 
and  represents  as  vividly  a  Christian  need  and 
demand  which  exists  in  the  days  of  Victoria, 
as  the  other  represented  the  need  and  demand 
which  existed  in  the  days  of  James. 

The  generality  of  people  are  hardly  prepared 
for  such  a  statement  as  this,  and  the  appoint- 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

ment  of  these  companies  of  revisers  has  been,  ' 
doubtless,  a  matter  of  surprise  and  offence  to 
many  persons  who  do  not  realize  the  deficiency 
of  their  present  Bible,  and  to  many  scholars, 
also,  who  are  so  wedded  to  its  aged  phrase- 
ology by  habit  and  affection,  as  to  overlook  too 
willingly  its  frequent  inadequacy  in  rendering 
the  meaning  and  force  of  the  original. 

The  English  Bible,  in  its  present     The  power  and 

beauty  of  thepre- 

form,  two  hundred  and  sixty  years  sent  version, 
old  in  this  year  of  grace,  given  to  the  public, 
when  Shakespeare,  and  Bacon,  and  Raleigh, 
and  Ben  Jonson,  and  Drayton,  and  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher  were  living  to  read  and  admire, 
the  richest  formation  of  that  great  and  plastic 
era  of  our  language,  the  "  bright  consummate 
flower"  of  saintly  labor  and  scholarly  genius, 
the  wonder  of  literature,  coming  down  with  the 
works  of  Shakespeare,  and,  like  them,  preserv- 
ing to  us  the  wealth  and  force  of  the  Saxon 
tongue — our  Mother  English  in  its  simplicity 
and  perfect  beauty — the  picturesque  structure 
of  an  age  now  long  gone  by,  already  gray 


12  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

•with  antiquity,  in  whose  familiar  forms  of 
speech  the  voices  of  our  forefathers  and  kind- 
red linger,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty 
seems  to  speak  as  with  the  majesty  of  an 
original  utterance — the  English  Bible  has 
impressed  itself  with  an  almost  overpowering 
authority  upon  the  Christian  heart  of  to-day, 
and  is  looked  upon,  in  many  cases,  as  if  it  wefe 
the  actual  production  of  the  ancient  scribe,  and 
its  pages  are  read  and  pondered  over  as  if  they 
contained  the  ultimate  and  unalterable  expres- 
sion of  Divine  truth, 
with  many  the  go  are  we  in  danger  of  repeating. 

YiTsii'ii  super- 
sedes the  originals  in   a  new  form,  the  old  infirmity  of 

idolatry,  which  was  the  worship  of  the  symbol 
instead  of  the  thing  symbolized.  We  are  in 
danger  of  looking  no  further  than  this  idol,  and 
of  forgetting  that  which  it  was  intended  to  re- 
present. We  offer  to  a  Version  what  is  due 
only  to  the  original.  Instead  of  reading  the 
Bible  "  as  through  a  glass  darkly,"  we  read  it 
"as  face  to  face." 

This  was  not  the  tendency  of  the  century 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

which    produced    the    "  Authorized     conventional 

and    literary  ad- 

Version,"  for  neither  the  people  to  miration  of  it. 
whom  it  was  given,  nor  the  scholars  who  had 
been  so  active  in  its  preparation,  looked  upon 
it  as  a  finality.  It  underwent  a  close  compe- 
tition for  many  years,  chiefly  with  one  other 
excellent  version,  and  its  translators  had  all 
long  passed  away  before  that  full  tide  of  en- 
thusiasm set  in  for  it,  which  has  been  main- 
tained ever  since.  As  usual  in  such  things,  a 
rhetorical  habit  of  eulogy  has  gathered  about 
it  and  invested  it  with  an  inapproachable  yet 
conventional  sanctity.  There  are  those  who 
profoundly  venerate  it  as  a  perfect  work;  and 
there  are  those  who  think  that  they  do.  There 
are  others  who  cling  to  it  with  a  mingled  feel- 
ing :  partly  a  literary  one,  as  an  invaluable 
standard  of  the  language,  and  partly  a  religious 
one,  as  a  standard  expression  also  of  Divine 
truth,  to  question  the  accuracy  of  which  would 
be  sure  to  disturb  the  popular  faith. 

The  latter  feeling  is  the  only  one      T^  original 

purpose  and  idea 

which,  in  a  matter  of  so  much  reli-  of  UH>  version. 


14  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

gious  importance,  can  properly  have  serious 
consideration ;  for  whatever  the  Bible  may 
have  incidentally  become  to  English  literature, 
this  was  not  its  essential  purpose.  It  was  trans- 
lated into  the  English  tongue  so  that  the 
common  people  might  be  able  to  read  it  for 
themselves,  and  it  was,  besides,  as  carefully 
rendered  as  the  mind  and  scholarship  of  the 
age  would  allow,  in  order  that  it  might  be  cited 
as  a  generally  accurate  and  standard  authority. 
But  no  such  pretension  ever  crowned  the  faith- 
ful work,  as  that  this  was  the  end,  beyond 
which  there  was  no  possibility  of  improvement, 
an  ultima  thule  in  the  vernacular ;  and  no  such 
idea  was  given  to  the  people  as  that  they  beheld 
the  brightness  of  the  Divine  face  without  any 
interposing  veil.  The  language  of  the  "  Trans- 
lators' Preface,"  exhibits  but  one  anxious  en- 
deavor, to  present,  if  possible,  an  improvement 
on  what  had  gone  before.  "Truly,"  it^avs, 
"we  never  thought  from  the  beginning  that  we 
should  need  to  make  a  new  translation,  nor  yet 
to  make  of  a  bad  one  a  good  one,  but  to  make 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

a  good  one  better,  or  out  of  many  good  ones 
one  principal  good  one,  not  justly  to  be  ex- 
cepted  against :  that  hath  been  our  endeavor, 
that  our  mark." 

While  the  importance  of  having     A  diversity  of 

translations 

one  standard  which  should  be  uni-  thought  to  be  no 

injury  to  the  pop- 

versally  accepted,  was  the  wise  oc-  uiarfuitu. 
ca-sion  of  the  great  undertaking,  yet  a  diversity 
of  translations  was  not  looked  upon  with  that 
jealousy  or  misgiving  which  prevails  in  some 
quarters  now.  It  did  no  harm  to  the  people, 
and  to  the  popular  faith,  at  that  time,  to  see 
the  English  Bible  in  the  act  of  struggling  out 
of  the  originals,  or  to  feel  that  the  scholarship 
of  the  age  had,  after  all,  only  done  its  best  to 
extract  the  whole  that  lay  in  those  mysterious 
sources. 

Certainly,  then,  the  most  reason-     The  best  argn- 

.  meut  for  its  re- 

able  way  ot  breaking  an  almost  idol-  Tiskmwouidbea 

,  ,       p  ,  review  of  its  his- 

atrous  delusion  now,  and  ot  bringing  tory. 
the    subject    clearly    to    "  a  wise   and   under- 
standing  people,"  would  be  to  withdraw  from 
the  misleading  sentimentalism  of  the  present 


16  OL'R  ENGLISH  BTBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

day  (which  is  always  prone  to  give  to  that 
which  is  old  and  venerable  a  factitious  value, 
seldom  discriminating  between  things  which, 
like  wine,  time  improves,  and  those  which, 
like  a  vesture,  time  deteriorates),  and  retire 
into  the  honest  daylight  of  the  age  in  which 
this  great  work  was  begun,  continued,  and  con- 
summated. 

There  is  one  unnoticed  and  unpondered  sen- 
tence on  the  title-page  of  our  Bible,  which, 
like  a  door,  opens  directly  back  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  closing  years  of  that  long 
period :  "  Translated  out  of  the  original  Tongues, 
and  icith  the  former  translations  diligently 
compared  and  revised"  If  the  modern  printers 
had  not  left  out  the  word  " newly'  before 
"  translated,"  which  appears  in  the  early  copies, 
we  should  have  had  an  additional  suggestion 
of  recency  to  carry  our  minds  back  into  that 
time. 

But  when  we  get  there,  even  so  far  as  the 
days  of  King  James,  we  must  needs  travel 
still  further  back,  with  the  ancient  fathers  of 


INTRODUCTION. 


17 


the  Authorized  Version,  into  what  was  a  long- 
past  age  to  them,  as  difficult  for  them  to  realize 
and  restore,  as  theirs  is  to  us,  but  in  which 
are  to  be  found  the  fountains  of  the  great 
movement  of  the  Bible  into  English,  which  in 
their  day  had  grown  into  such  a  mighty  stream. 


I. 

THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT. 

THE  BIBLE  FOR  THE  PEOPLE. — EARLY  SAXON  VERSIONS. 
— THE  VERSION  OF  JOHN  WYCLIFFE. — ITS  REVISION 
BY  JOHN  PURVEY. 

IT  is   hard   for   us,  in  this   day,     Books  in  ™*n- 
J  '     uscript. 

sitting  amid  myriads  of  books,  to 
go  behind  the  Printing  Press  and  to  realize  the 
long  series  of  ages  when  a  Book  was  a  rare  and 
curious  wonder,  and  when  the  ability  to  read 
was  an  accomplishment  equally  rare  and  mar- 
vellous. And  yet  it  was  under  just  such  con- 
ditions that  the  Scriptures  were  first  written, 
and  under  the  same  they  remained  in  every 
country  where  they  were  taken,  and  in  every 
language  into  which  they  were  translated,  until 
only  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago.  One 
man  had  to  read  for  a  thousand — often  for  ten 

(19) 


20  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

thousand,  and  much  that  was  written  had  to 
go  forth  on  the  surface  of  the  people  in  the 
transmuted  form  of  oral  explanation.  The 
pulpits  stood  up  in  an  ocean  of  popular  igno- 
rance, dim  light-houses  of  instruction,  as  well 
as  of  guidance,  to  un  reading  millions. 
The  Bibie doub-  But,  on  the  other  hand, the  very 

ly  locked  up. 

mystery  which  enveloped  the  Scrip- 
tures— scriptures,  then,  in  the  most  literal  sense 
— as  sources  of  Divine  knowledge,  in  which 
lay  the  precious  story  of  the  Life  of  Christ, 
the  history  of  the  Chosen  People,  and  the  total 
Revelation  of  heavenly  truth  to  man,  could  not 
but  stimulate  the  curiosity  of  the  people  to  be 
more  fully  informed  about  them.  And  when, 
in  addition  to  this,  they  were  known  to  be 
doubly  locked  up,  first  in  the  ancient,  and  what 
had  become  the  ecclesiastical  Latin  tongue, 
and  next,  even  as  such,  jealously  kept  within 
the  cloisters  of  the  church,  the  popular  eager- 
ness to  become  acquainted  with  their  contents 
could  hardly  have  had  a  greater  incitement. 
We  ourselves  cannot  realize  the  power  of  this 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  21 

threefold  incentive  to  curiosity  except  by  put- 
ting ourselves*into  this  long-past  situation,  and 
imagining  our  minds  in  such  a  darkness  as 
would  blot  out  our  present  enlightened  con- 
sciousness of  Christianity  and  our  ability  to 
read  the  Bible  in  our  native  tongue,  and  then, 
in  all  that  strange  obliviousness,  to  fancy  our- 
selves hearing  vaguely  of  the  inspired  authori- 
ties of  our  religion  as  sealed  up  in  another,  and 
not  the  original,  language,  and  getting  all  our 
knowledge  of  it  through  the  muffled  dogmas 
of  a  church  and  the  muzzled  mouths  of  its 
priests  !  It  is  all  a  matter  of  imagination  now, 
but  it  was  a  hungry,  anxious  reality  then;  and 
such  is  the  condition  of  things  amid  which  this 
history  opens. 
So,  it  will  be  noticed,  in  going  back  T  The0r«*  and 

Latin    Churches 

into  these    a^es,  we  come    upon  a  Prohihiting 

*.  translations. 

greater  obstacle  to  the  diffusion  of  the  Bible 
than  even  a  general  ignorance  of  letters.  We 
come  upon  this  traditional  policy  of  the  Church, 
which  in  both  its  branches,  the  Greek  and  the 
Latin,  had  from  the  earliest  times  "  interdicted 


22  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  any  ver- 
nacular tongue."  And  this  policy  became  only 
the  more  intensified  and  deeply  rooted  as  time 
went  on  and  education  began  to  spread  among 
the  laity,  and  the  symptoms  of  a  disposition  to 
read  and  think  for  themselves,  grew  more 
strongly  manifest. 
The  English  The  experience  of  the  Bible  in 

Bible     wrought      m  • 

into  the  history  its  endeavors  to  reach  the    people 

of     the    English    ...  ,  . 

Reformation.  has  its  best  and  most  heroic  history 
in  the  case  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  and  of 
the  English  tongue.  The  spirit  of  Anglican 
independence  of  the  Roman  rule  has  in  this 
its  most  striking  illustration,  and  the  annals  of 
the  Reformation  in  England  are  bound  up  and 
identical  with  the  annals  of  the  English  Bible. 
EngHsh^church  There  would  seem  to  have  been  a 
transition  remarkable  tendency  in  the  early 
English  Church,  before  Roman  interference  set 
in  so  strongly,  to  bring  the  Scriptures  to  the 
common  people.  In  the  great  British  collec- 
tions, the  libraries  of  Oxford,  of  Cambridge, 
and  of  the  British  Museum,  many  vestiges  of 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  23 

this    tendency   may   be    found    in 

Early  Saxon  and 

curious  fragments  of  Anglo-Saxon  Nommnversions. 
and  Anglo-Norman  versions  :  rude  and  imper- 
fect attempts  to  get  portions  of  the  Bible  into 
the  vernacular.  The  oldest  of  these,  attri- 
buted to  Csedmon,  a  monk,  is  the  Bible  history 
paraphrased  in  the  alliterative  verse  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  poetry.  The  venerable  Bede,  who 
always  wrote  in  Latin,  is  yet  associated  with 
a  version  of  St.  John's  Gospel  in  his  native 
tongue.  A  Psalter  is  extant,  said  to  be  by  a 
Saxon  Bishop  of  the  seventh  century.  A  few 
chapters  of  Exodus  and  the  Psalms  were  trans- 
lated by  King  Alfred,  who  is  recorded  to  have 
said  that  he  desired  "  all  the  free-born  youth 
of  his  kingdom  should  be  able  to  read  the 
English  Scriptures."*  There  are  three  ver- 
sions of  the  Gospels  and  some  fragments  of  the 
Old  Testament  referred  to  the  ninth  and  tenth 
centuries.  Three  or  four  more  of  the  Gospels 
are  assigned  to  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  cen- 

*  Plumptre— Smith's  Bible  Diet.  iii.  1665. 


24  Oi'R  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

turies.  Then,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  a 
translation  into  Norman  French  of  the  whole 
Bible  by  an  unknown  hand,  and  various  frag- 
mentary versions  of  the  Psalms,  and  other 
portions  of  the  Bible,  seem  to  have  appeared 
here  and  there ;  all  in  uncouth,  grotesque, 
and  unintelligible  lettering  to  the  modern  eye 
— but  hungrily  read  by  the  educated  among 
the  people  of  those  passing  centuries. 
«°nl?  rea!Lby  It  is  doubtful  how  far  these  were 

the  educated 

among  the         intended    for    the   masses,   as   the 

people. 

knowledge  of  letters  had  not  yet  gone  down 
among  the  lower  orders  ;  but  it  is  evident  that 
some  of  the  higher  and  wealthier  classes  were 
familiar  with  the  Scriptures  in  their  native 
tongue.  And  so,  it  would  appear,  after  all, 
that  these  Versions  must  have  been  shut  up 
in  the  cloister,  the  cell,  the  circles  of  the  court, 
and  the  houses  of  the  opulent,  mere  rush-lights 
in  a  densely  dark  age ;  and  all  of  them  would 
eeem  to  have  burned  so  far  apart,  or  in  such 
seclusion,  not  to  say  oblivion,  that  when  Wyc- 
liffe  turned  to  his  task  of  translating  the  Bible, 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  25 

he  is  found  complaining  that  there  was  nothing 
extant  to  help  him.* 

Though  still  the  age  of  manu- 

The    century 

script,  the  century  before  Wycliffe  before  wycliffe- 
had  witnessed  a  gradual  emergence  from  the 
gross  darkness  of  these  earlier  times.  It  was 
comparatively  an  age  of  thought  and  of  reading 
among  the  laity;  quite  enough  to  create  an 
immense  appreciation  of  his  labors  on  the  part 
of  the  people. 

The  mind  of  all  these  later  cen- 

The  rise  of  the 

turies  had  been  active  enough,  and  Engllsh  tongue- 
learning  had  been  cultivated  to  a  very  great 
extent,  but  the  thinkers  and  scholars  were 
mostly  to  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  the  clergy. 
The  learned  always  wrote  in  Latin.  The 
nobles  spoke  in  Norman-French.  But  the 
people  still  clung  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  of 
their  ancestors,  and  this  was  destined  to 
become  the  noble  and  enduring  basis  of  that 
future  English  tongue  which  all  alike  were 

*  Plumptre— Smith's  Bible  Diet.  iii.  1665. 


26  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

in  time  to  employ  both  in  speech  and  litera- 
ture. To  indicate  its  long  submergence  under 
these  other  and  more  customary  modes  of 
speech  and  writing,  and  its  slow  ascension  into 
use  and  power,  the  fact  may  be  mentioned  that 
not  till  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century 
was  a  legal  instrument  put  into  English,  and 
the  close  of  that  century  drew  near  before  it 
was  recognised  and  spoken  in  Parliament, 
oxford  and  The  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 

Cambridge    Uni-  . 

centuries  witnessed  also  another 
advance.  Those  great  seats  of  learning, 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  which  had  hereto- 
fore been  only  single  and  concentrated  schools, 
now  became  each  that  collection  of  colleges 
which  distinguishes  them  to-day.  It  was 
then  that  those  separate  institutions  were 
founded,  and  those  venerable  structures 
reared,  which  now  are  so  antiquated  and 
picturesque,  and  which,  with  their  scholastic 
traditions,  have  comedown  to  us  laden  with 
the  romantic  associations  of  a  forming  thought 
and  literature,  just  as  the  old  castles  of  Eng- 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  27 

land  linger  in  the  present  to  be  the  ancient 
sanctuaries  of  its  history,  and  the  cathedrals 
are  cherished  as  the  ancient  fortresses  of  its 
religion. 

There  are  said  to  have  been  thirty  thousand 
students  in  the  University  of  Oxford  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  :  *  and  this 
was  the  century  in  which  John  Wycliffe  was 
born,  and  grew  into  pre-eminent  distinction 
as  a  scholar,  a  theologian,  a  philosopher,  a 
writer  of  many  controversial  tracts,  an  inde- 
pendent student  of  the  Scriptures,  and  finally, 
(with  the  aid  of  his  friend  Nicolas  of  Hereford 
in  part  of  the  Old  Testament),  the  translator 
of  the  whole  Bible  from  the  Latin  quoted  by 
the  schoolmen  into  the  English  spoken  by  the 
people. 

Wycliffe   was,    in    his   day   and 

*  *  Wycliffe     like 

generation,     an      anticipation      of  Lu!her- 
Luther,    and    almost  the   same  circumstances 
seemed  to  have  produced  him  as  those  which 

*  Illus.  Hist.  Eng.  i.  813, 


28  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

afterwards  produced  the  great  German  Re- 
former. He  was  a  man  who  had  drank  deep 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  to  whom  they  had 
become  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  doctrine 
in  opposition  to  a  church  which  had  found 
it  convenient  to  forget  and  to  conceal  those 
earliest  wells  of  its  inspiration  and  guidance. 
He  stood  out  against  the  four  powerful  reli- 
gious orders  of  his  time  as  corrupt  and  noxious 
societies.  He  braved  their  rage  and  curses 
when  the  preponderating  influence  of  the 
Church  was  at  their  back,  and  succeeded  in 
lowering  somewhat  their  public  repute.  He 
met  the  Bishops  in  controversy,  and  had  to 
endure  frequent  episcopal  persecution.  He 
withstood  even  the  Pope  again  and  again,  and 
was  made  the  object  of  many  Papal  bulls. 
Luther,  himself,  was  not  so  distinguished  in 
the  outset  of  his  career,  nor  so  personally 
formidable  as  a  scholar  and  theologian, — "the 
first  casuist  in  the  Empire,"* — and  the  holder 
of  high  preferments  in  the  gift  of  the  Church, 

*  English  Hexapla  7. 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  29 

nor  was  he  any  more  alert  and  bold,  in  the 
proportion  of  his  opportunity,  in  challenging 
the  avalanche  of  Papal  wrath  to  fall.  And, 
as  it  afterward  turned  out  in  the  mind  of 
Luther,  so  it  now  turned  out  in  the  mind  of 
Wycliffe :  an  almost  immediate  determination 
to  assume  the  extraordinary  task  of  translating 
the  entire  Bible  into  the  language  of  the  com- 
mon people,  as  the  first  and  best  means  of 
acquainting  them  with  the  truth,  and  bringing, 
all  the  strength  of  their  uprising  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  Church. 

The  merit  of  undertaking  the  self-same 
gigantic  labor  was  all  the  greater  that  he  had 
no  such  means  or  encouragement  as  the  Print- 
ing Press  at  hand  to  spread  his  work  by 
thousands,  but  was  shut  up  to  the  simple  and 
sluggish  vehicles  of  publication  known  to  his 
time. 

When  any  one  would  publish,  in     Modes- of  Pni>- 

lication  in  \fyo 

those  days,  instead  of  committing  uffe-sday. 
his  book,  as  now,  to  the  quickly  multiplying 
types,  he  gave  it  to  professional  copyists,  or  he 


30  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

himself  pronounced  it  slowly  from  a  pulpit 
erected  in  some  public  place,  and  there  it  was 
taken  down  by  all  who  desired  to  possess  a 
transcript.  This  was  the  halting  way  in 
which  it  became  distributed  among  the  people.* 
In  like  manner,  doubtless,  were  the  English 
Scriptures  laboriously  copied  from  Wycliffe's 
own  manuscript,  and  borne  into  the  secret  re- 
cesses of  English  homes  to  be  read,  or  heard 
read,  in  gratitude  and  wonder  by  the  people 
as  their  own  first  fresh  communion  with  the 
veritable  oracles  of  God. 

Chaucer  and  Chaucer  and  Mandeville,  whose 
works  now  mark  the  dawn  of  the 
present  English  tongue,  were  contemporaries 
of  WycliiFe,  and,  as  the  former  has  been  called 
the  father  of  English  poetry,  so  Wycliffe  now 
earned  a  greater  right  than  the  latter  to  be 
called  the  father  of  English  prose. 

The  effect  of       The  work  of  translation  occupied 

his  Version.  i   •  j      « ,  , « 

him  many  years,   and    it  was  the 
frequent  theme  of  his  tracts  long  before  it  was 

*  English  Hexapla  8. 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  31 

finished.  The  version  appeared  about  1380, 
and  was  of  course  copied  eagerly  and  read 
everywhere.  It  was  wildly  protested  against 
by  his  opponents,  for,  like  the  opening  of  win- 
dows in  a  long-closed  building  given  up  to  the 
owls  and  the  bats,  this  was  opening  the  win- 
dows of  a  corrupt  church  which  had  shut 
itself  up  in  darkness,  "  because  its  deeds  were 
evil,"  and  the  pouring  in  of  the  whole  blaze  of 
God's  sunlight  to  its  insupportable  disturbance. 
The  swarming  friars  of  the  mendicant  orders, 
who  were  battening  on  the  ignorance  and  cre- 
dulity of  the  people,  were  stirred  from  their 
places  by  the  exposure.  The  unclean  lives  of 
the  clergy  could  not  endure  the  revelation  of 
the  pure  and  spotless  life  of  Christ.*  The 
complaint  of  Knighton,  a  church  dignitary  of 
the  time,  gives  us  an  inside  view  of  the  priestly 
discomfiture.  "  The  gospel"  (writes  he)  "  which 
Christ  committed  to  the  clergy  and  doctors  of 
the  church,  that  they  might  sweetly  dispense 
it  to  the  laity  and  weaker  persons,  according 

*Westcott.     History  of  the  English  Bible  19. 


32  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

to  the  exigency  of  the  times,  and  the  wants  of 
the  people,  hungering  after  it  in  their  mind,  this 
John  Wycliffe  has  translated  into  the  Anglican  t 
not  angelic,  language;  whence,  through  him, 
it  has  been  published  and  disclosed  more  openly 
to  laymen  and  women  able  to  read,  than  it 
used  to  be  to  the  most  learned  and  intelligent 
of  the  clergy — and  so  the  gospel  pearl  is  cast 
abroad,  and  trodden  under  foot  of  swine ;  and 
what  was  dear  to  clergy  and  laity  is  now  ren- 
dered, as  it  were,  the  common  jest  of  both; 
so  that  the  gem  of  the  church  becomes  the 
derision  of  laymen,  and  that  is  now  theirs  lor 
ever,  which  before  was  the  special  property  of 
the  clergy  and  doctors.* 

Yes,  it  was  "  now  theirs  for  ever."  The 
great,  brave,  dangerous,  but  all  necessary 
movement  people-ward  had  begun,  and  the 
response  of  the  people  was  never  afterwards 
wanting.  Wycliffe  did  not  live  to  see  it,  but 
the  released  glad  tidings  went  everywhere' 
among  them,  and  the  new  faith  flew  from  mouth 

*  English  Hexapla  7. 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT,  33 

to  mouth  and  heart  to  heart.  It  is  the  record 
of  an  enemy  to  the  movement  that  the  country 
was  so  full  of  converts  that  "  a  man  could  not 
meet  two  people  on  the  road,  but  one  of  them 
was  a  disciple  of  Wyclifle."  The  Londoners 
were  declared  to  be  "nearly  all  Lollards,"* 
the  name  of  reproach  by  which  his  followers 
were  known. 

Among  the  foremost  who  were     Failure  of  om- 

.  cial  attempts  to 

alarmed  by  the  growing  reformation  suppress  it. 
wu.s  Arundel,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who 
set  himself  to  extinguish  its  occasion,  and  pro- 
cured a  decree  of  Convocation  threatening  the 

w 

"  greater  excommunication"  upon  any  one  who 
should  read  Wycliffe's  version,  or  any  other, 
in  whole  or  in  part,  publicly  or  privately.  It 
is  a  remarkable  indication  of  how  widelv, 

•/  ' 

nevertheless,  the  Bible  continued  to  be  copied 
and  secretly  read  by  both  rich  and  poor,  that 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  copies  of  it,  and 
of  the  revised  edition  of  it  by  John  Purvey, 
some  of  them  sumptuously  illuminated  and 

*  Blunt's  Dictionary  of  Theology  429. 


34  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

bound,  are  now  in  existence,  which  had  eluded 
Arundel's  vigilant  and  destroying  search. 

it*  region  by  Without  a  notice  of  this  subse- 
quent revision  the  account  of  Wyc- 
liffe's  work  would  not  be  complete.  John 
Purvey,  "  who  boarded  with  Wycliffe,  partook 
largely  of  his  instructions,  and  completely 
imbibed  his  opinions,  continuing  his  companion 
to  his  dying  day,"  about  four  years  after  his 
death  undertook  the  re-issue  of  his  version  on 
a  scale  of  most  elaborate  and  painstaking  im- 
provement. Purvey  seems  to  have  stood  in 
very  much  the  same  relation  to  Wycliffe,  that 
John  Rogers  afterwards  did  to  Tyndale,  revis- 
ing the  version  of  Wycliffe  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  the  version  of  Nicolas  of  Hereford 
in  the  Old,  as  Rogers  revised  Tyndale  in  the 
New  and  Coverdale  in  the  Old. 

Greek  and  He-       But  the  material  with  which  both 

brew  as   vet  un- 
known. The  ver-  the  translator  and  his  reviser  had 

sion  from   the 

Latia.  to   work   was   very  different  from 

that  which  was  at  hand  a  century  and  a  half 
later.  The  Greek  and  Hebrew  originals  were 


THE  AGE  OF  MAXUSCRIPT.  35 

not  known,  and  the  study  of  these  languages, 
except  in  very  rare  instances,  had  ceased  in 
Western  Europe.  Wycliffe,  distinguished 
scholar  as  he  was,  remained  almost  totally 
ignorant  of  both.  The  only  form  in  which 
the  Bible  was  accessible  was  in  the  Latin 
translation  of  St.  Jerome,  made  in  the 
fourth  century,  called  the  Yulgate.  This  was 
all  that  the  Roman  Church  would  recognise, 
and  even  this,  as  we  have  seen,  it  interdicted 
the  laity  from  using.  The  copies  of  this  Latin 
version,  then  in  existence,  were  none  of  them 
clear  of  gross  errors  in  the  text.  The  version 
of  Wycliffe  was  of  course  infected  with  these 
corruptions,  and  as  soon  as  it  got  into  wide 
circulation  the  necessity  of  a  revision  on  the 
basis  of  a  purer  text  became  manifest.  The 
revision  was  carefully  and  conscientiously  done 
by  Purvey,  who  also  retouched  the  version 
throughout,  and  it  is  this  form  of  WyclinVs 
Bible  which  finally  took  hold  of  the  age  and 
which  has  come  down  to  the  present  time. 
But  Purvey  did  not  change  the  diction  which 


36  or  It  EXGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

But  the  style     Wycliffe   had    adopted,  and  which 

adopted  by  \V>,-  . 

litre  since  retain-  was  purposely  neither  scholarly  nor 

od  in  every  other 

version.  courtly,    but    the    simple,    liomely 

Saxon  speech  of  the  people ;  the  style  of  the 
Bible  in  every  one  of  the  seven  subsequent 
versions,  including  that  which  we  accept  to- 
day. In  his  ideas  also  of  what  constituted 
both  spiritually  and  philologically  an  especial 
fitness  for  the  work  we  doubtless  see  the  spirit 
and  power  of  his  great  predecessor,  and  there- 
fore the  more  eminent  name  still  justly  absorbs 
the  authorship  and  renown  of  the  wonderful 
achievement. 
The  firet  ex-  Few  are  prepared  to  realize  the 

press  endeavor  to 

give  the  scrip-    extraordinary     character     of    this 

tares  to  the  peo- 

pie.  pioneer   attitude   of  Wycliffe,    and 

especially  the  greatness  of  his  undertaking  not 
only  to  translate,  for  this  had  been  done 
before,  but  to  put  the  Scriptures  into  circulation 
among  the  people.  The  boldness  of  the  act,  its 
wisdom  and  far-sightedness,  and  the  personal 
willingness  in  one  of  his  eminence  and  dis- 
tinction to  stand  almost  alone  in  defence  of 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  37 

and  responsibility  for  convictions  that  were 
then  novel  and  remarkable,  cannot  be  over- 
estimated, especially  when  we  see  the  great 
historic  result  which  afterward  justified  and 
glorified  him. 

But,   although    in    the  group  of     The  version  not 

a  progenitor    of 

English-Bible  heroes  we  count  him  the  present  one. 
the  foremost,  yet  in  the  golden  chain  of  the 
translations  his  version  cannot  be  included. 
It  was  only  a  translation  of  a  translation. 
The  time  was  yet  to  come  when  men  should 
render  direct  from  the  inspired  originals ; 
but, — though  by  this  vital  distinction  detached, 
and  standing  alone,  without  descent,  as  it  was 
without  ancestry,  and  as  "  born  out  of  due 
time," — still  the  immense  interest  will  always 
invest  it  of  being,  after  a  spiritual  and  Provi- 
dential order,  in  the  line  of  the  ancestry  of 
our  English  scriptures,  the  first  to  meet  the 
hunger  of  the  people,  the  first  to  kindle  the 
fires  of  the  Reformation,  and  destined  to  stand 
for  ever  as  the  earliest  beacon  light  of  that 
appeal  to  the  people,  and  of  that  faith  in  the 


38  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

wisdom    of    the   popular    judgment   and    will 
which  has  ^ince  moved  over  both  church  and 
state,    and   which    will    finally    illumine    and 
regenerate  the  world. 
its  giory  m          The  New  Testament  of  Wycliffe, 

starting  the  Eng- 
lish and  conti-     even  now  as  a  printed  book,  is  far 

nental  Reforma- 
tion, withdrawn  from  the  English  appre- 
hension by  its  antique  Saxonisms  of  style  and 
spelling,  and  was  almost  as  unreadable  to  the 
next  generation  of  reformers  as  to  ourselves;  but 
this  is  its  everlasting  glory, — the  glory  of  an 
extinct  luminary — it  made  itself  an  epoch,  and 
it  gathered  around  it  the  first  organized  and 
formidable  resistance  which  ever  occurred,  to 
Romish  corruption  both  in  doctrine  and  life. 
The  antiquated  version  will  always  have  this 
magnificent  association.  Wycliffe  gave  it  to 
his  followers,  and  as  the  Roman  Catholic  his- 
torian, Dr.  Lingard,  justly  says:  "In  their 
hands  it  became  an  engine  of  wonderful  power. 
Men  were  flattered  with  the  appeal  to  their 
private  judgment;  the  new  doctrines  insen- 
sibly acquired  partisans  and  protectors  in  the 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  39 

higher  classes,  who  alone  were  acquainted  with 
the  use  of  letters;  a  spirit  of  inquiry  was 
generated ;  and  the  seeds  were  sown  of  that 
religious  revolution,  which,  in  a  little  more 
than  a  century,  astonished  and  convulsed  the 
nations  of  Europe." 

The  history  of  that  century  when  TheLoiiards. 
these  "  seeds"  were  working  in  English  soil,  is 
a  history  which  belongs  to  the  State  as  well 
as  to  the  Church  of  England.  The  emancipa- 
tion of  the  people  took  a  political  as  well  as  a 
theological  direction.  The  Lollards  became  a 
dreaded  power ;  high  dignitaries  and  distin- 
guished names  appeared  among  them.  They 
represented  an  uncomfortable  amount  of  the 
intelligence  and  thought  of  the  people,  and 
sometimes  so  turbulently  that  both  the  Church 
and  the  State  agreed  to  imprison,  to  hang,  and 
to  burn.  The  "  Lollards'  Tower,"  often  in  this 
day  a  conspicuous  part  of  the  episcopal  palaces 
of  England,  is  a  vestige  of  that  early  spiritual 
and  political  rebellion ;  now  the  monument  of 


40          OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

its  history  and  sufferings,  as  it  was  then  the 
prison  of  its  temporary  repression. 
Burning  of  In   the  midst  of   it  all  Wycliffe 

Wycliffe's  bones,     i   •  i  /»  •  i  i 

himself  experienced  a  most  singular 
and  typical  resurrection.  An  order  came  from 
Pope  Martin  the  Fifth,  nearly  a  half-century 
after  he  had  fallen  dead  at  the  foot  of  the 
altar  of  his  parish  church  at  Lutter  worth, 
commanding  his  bones  to  be  dug  up  and 
burned ;  and  the  now  quick  and  fiery  ashes  of 
those  aged  bones,  already  crumbling  fast 
enough  by  nature  into  their  original  dust,  were 
scattered  on  the  Swift,  a  little  streamlet  which 
ran  by  the  churchyard  where  he  lay. 

"Thus,"  says  old  Fuller,  ready  both  as  a 
poet  and  a  prophet  to  catch  the  augury,  "  this 
brook  hath  conveyed  his  ashes  into  Avon ; 
Avon  into  Severn ;  Severn  into  the  narrow 
seas ;  they  into  the  main  ocean ;  and  thus  the 
ashes  of  Wycliffe  are  the  emblem  of  his  doc- 
trine which  is  now  dispersed  all  the  world 
over."  Or,  as  a  more  sprightly  pen  of  the 
same  day  put  it : — 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  41 

"  The  Avon  to  the  Severn  runs, 

The  Severn  to  the  Sea, 
And  Wycliffe's  dust  shall  spread  abroad, 
Wide  as  the  waters  be." 

Even  so  his  followers  survived  every  persecu- 
tion, and  when,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  the  power  of  Rome  in  England  was 
broken  and  expelled,  they  were  the  first  to 
join  and  swell  the  tide  of  that  renewed  move- 
ment toward  Reformation  which  resulted  in 
the  complete  independence  of  the  English 
Church,  and  finally  of  Protestants  of  every 
name  who  spoke  the  English  tongue. 

Wycliffe — while  he  died  a  natural  death,  and 
only  by  an  accident  escaped  martyrdom  at  the 
stake — that  accident  being  the  onset  against 
each  other  of  two  rival  Popes — was  himself 
the  spiritual  father  of  two  famous  martyrs  on 
the  other  side  of  the  English  Channel.  It  was 
owing  to  him  that  both  John  Huss  JohnIIU88and 

Jerome  of  Prague, 

and  Jerome  of  Prague,  men  of  ^iples  of  Wyc" 
scholarship,  eloquence,  courage,  and  an  influ- 
ence which  terrified  the  ecclesiastics  of  their 


42  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

day,  rose  up  in  their  place  in  Bohemia  and 
agitated  for  the  reformation  of  a  corrupt 
church,  nearly  a  century  before  Luther  was 
born,  and  did  for  the  coming  religious  revolu- 
tion on  the  continent  what  Wycliffe  had 
done  for  it  in  England. — "  Wycliffe"  was  their 
watchword.  They  publicly  proclaimed  his 
writings  and  their  adoption  of  his  doctrines. 
They  made  his  name  ring  far  and  wide  through 
Europe.  The  church  authorities  caught  up 
and  burned  his  "  pernicious"  books — and  at  last 
both  John  Huss  and  Jerome  were  also  caught 
up,  hurried  to  the  stake  and  burned  :  their 
ashes,  thrown  upon  the  swift  waters  of  the 
Rhine,  to  go,  like  Wycliffe 's,  over  the  broad  sea, 
as  their  spirit  and  power  had  already  gone  every- 
where over  the  ocean  of  the  people  to  make 
the  Reformation  under  Luther  only  the  grand 
outburst  of  a  long-brewing  storm  which  should 
cause  that  ocean  to  rage  and  swell. 

But  this  historic  reminiscence  of  Wycliffe 
and  his  work  awakens  still  another  association 
nearer  to  ourselves. 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  43 

His  Bible  is  a  memorial  stone  of  ,.  *nc;,ent  EHng' 

hah  independence 

English  independence  in  sentiment  pf0^heerPapal 
and  feeling,  of  Rome  and  the  Papal  Power, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  and  more  before 
Henry  the  Eighth  found  it  personally  and 
dynastically  convenient  to  drive  out  that 
intruding  authority,  and  to  be  constituted 
himself  the  "Head  of  the  Church."  The 
ability  of  Henry  to  do  this  lay  not  in  himself, 
but  in  the  latent,  long-growing  and  radical 
alienation  of  the  English  people  from  the  Pope. 
As  in  primitive  Saxon,  or  rather  British  times, 
the  days  of  Gregory  and  his  far-famed  mis- 
sionary to  Britain,  St.  Augustine,  an  inde- 
pendent church  already  existed  there  with  its 
bishops  and  complete  Episcopal  organization, 
so  it  had  continued,  in  every  after-century 
since,  notwithstanding  the  growth  of  Roman 
influence,  to  exhibit  a  reserve,  manifested  in 
some  outbreak,  royal  or  otherwise,  until  in  the 
person  of  Wycliffe  and  his  followers  it  struggled 
apart  in  a  way  that  history  has  been  especially 
called  to  record.  And  thus  we  find  in  the 


44  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

epoch  of  Wycliffe,  not  of  Luther,  on  English 
soil,  not  German,  in  the  English  Church,  not 
the  Roman,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  not  the 
sixteenth,  the  power  and  the  feeling  down 
among  the  people  which  made  Henry  the 
Eighth  afterward  possible  as  the  leader  of  the 
English  Reformation,  and  that  development 
possible  of  organized  independence,  by  which 
the  church  resumed  her  primitive  character, 
and  in  which  she  has  since  proceeded  alone. 

Just  as  primitive  Christianity,  struggling  for 
existence,  reached  at  last  in  the  Emperor  Con- 
stantine  the  political  and  the  state  opportunity 
to  rise  into  power  and  grandeur,  so  did  the 
primitive  English  Church,  after  suffering  from 
this  alien  intrusion  nearly  a  thousand  years. 
reach  in  its  bold  bad  monarch  a  political  and  a 
state  occasion  when  it  became  a  separate 
establishment  in  its  own  insular  realms. 

Thus  the  sheaf  of  wheat,  which  had  this 
rich  outburst  of  golden  grain  in  the  time  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  and  which  had  been  cut 
from  the  British  soil  in  those  early  Saxon  cen- 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT.  45 

turies,  found  its  binding  circlet  midway,  during 
the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third,  in  the  ripe 
movement  of  Wycliffe,  the  English  Reformer ; 
and  so  does  that  great  Church  still  s'and  up, 
across  the  sea,  a  bound  historic  sheaf,  after  a 
long  growth  and  precarious  fruitage  now  safely 
harvested,  old  in  herself,  but  young  in  her 
grain-seeds ;  the  power  which  has  spread,  and 
is  still  destined  to  spread  everywhere,  the  glad 
tidings  of  Jesus  Christ  wherever  the  English 
language  is  spoken  and  the  English  Bible  read. 


II. 

THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING. 

THE  FIRST  GREEK  TESTAMENT. — ERASMUS. — CARDINAL 
XIMENES. — THE  PATRIARCH  VERSION  OF  WILLIAM 
TYNDALE. 

T>ET  WEEN  sixty  and  seventy  years  after  the 
*  death  of  Wycliffe,  in  the  middle  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  the  night  of  the  Dark  Ages 
passed  away,  and  the  sun  of  the  new  civilization 
rose  in  its  strength ;  and,  like  the  natural  sun,  it 
found  the  world  prepared  for  its  rising.  There 
was  every  instinct  alive  and  abroad  to  greet, 
and  to  grow  under,  the  great  and  sudden  illu- 
mination. This  sun  was  the  Printing  Press. 

(46) 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  47 

Between  the  years  1450-55  John     The  Latin  BI- 

bio  the  first 

Gutenberg,  even  while  he  held  the  printed  book. 
precious  product  of  his  genius  trembling  in  his 
hands,  fearful  of  some  one  discovering  and 
stealing  his  treasure,  printed  as  his  first  publi- 
cation the  Latin  Bible.*  The  Bible,  then,  was 
the  first  book  from  the  Press  !  The  dawn  of 
the  new  Day  was  even  so  correspondent  to  the 
opening  mind  of  the  departing  Night.  Strange 
giving  again  to  the  people !  Inevitable  move- 
ment of  Providence ! 

When  the  sun  rises,  it  first  spreads  abroad 
the  diffused  glory  of  the  dawn,  but  when  it 
reaches  the  horizon  line  it  appears  to  rush  up 
and  reveals  almost  all  its  disk  at  once.  Noth- 
ing can  exhibit  the  instantaneous  leap  of  this 
new  sun,  and  the  sudden  outflood  of  its  efful- 
gence upon  mankind,  more  vividly  than  the 
simple  statistics  of  that  amazing  era  as  it 
opened.  Before  the  close  of  the  ever  memora- 

*  Published  in  1452, — a  splendid  and  beautiful  volume. 
Scrivener.  "Introduction  to  the  Criticism  of  the  New 
Testament,"  262. 


48  OUR  EXGLISH  BIBLE  AXD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

ble  fifteenth  century,  above  one  thousand 
printing  presses  were  going  in  two  hundred 
and  twenty  places  in  Europe.  One  hundred 
different  editions  of  the  Latin  Bible  had  been 
issued,*  and  Bibles  had  been  printed  in 
Spanish,  Italian,  French,  Dutch,  German,  and 
Bohemian  versions.^ 

The  English  Bible  was  not  yet  forthcoming. 
It  still  remained  in  the  manuscripts  of  the 
Wycliffites.  But,  for  that  matter,  all  of  these 
Continental  translations,  like  that  of  Wycliffe, 
were  only  secondary  translations — versions  of 
the  Vulgate. 

The  Revival  or  Meantime,  through  all  this  half- 
century,  the  press  was  teeming  with 
many  other  works,  chiefly  the  Latin  and 
Greek  classics,  and  literature,  in  all  the 
branches  then  known,  entered  upon  its  new 
and  greater  life.  The  eager  study  of  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  languages  was  the  first 
outburst  of  this  "  Revival  of  Learning." 

*  Anderson.    Annals  of  English  Bible  Ixiii.     Introd. 
f  Westcott.     Hist.  Kiig.  Bib.  30. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  49 

The  Latin  version  of  the  Bible  could  no  longer 
satisfy  the  new  mind  which  had  come  into 
being.  The  theological  thirst  for  truth  and 
the  religious  excitement  of  the  day  sent  every 
active  intellect  far  back  of  this  ecclesiastical 
cistern  to  the  original  but  long-forgotten  wells 
of  the  "  living"  water.  It  was  religious  inquiry 
which  led  the  way  to  the  study  and  resuscita- 
tion of  these  dead  literatures,  and  when  they 
revived,  it  was  first  in  the  form  of  the  printed 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  The  striking  dec- 
laration of  an  eminent  authority,  quoted  by 
Mr.  TTestcott,  is  therefore  as  true  as  it  is  pic- 
turesque, that  "Greece  had  risen  from  the 
grave  with  the  New  Testament  in  her  hand."* 


risen  first  in  the  publication  of  a  Greek- 
text  of  the  Old  Testament  in  1488,  when  as 
yet  only  a  few,  except  Jews,  could  read  it. 
The  Greek  text  of  the  New  Testament  did 
not  appear  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury afterwards.  It  had  to  wait  until  the 

*  Westcott.     Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  30. 


50  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  ASD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

knowledge  of  that  language  had  been  suffi- 
ciently acquired  by  the  scholars  of  the  day. 
But  when  it  came,  it  came  by  way  of  Eng- 
land. The  springs  which  fed  that  fountain  of 
scholarship  were  found  in  Oxford. 

The  history  of  this  reads  almost  like  a  ro- 
mance, and  it  keeps  the  English  Church  con- 
spicuously in  the  line  of  the  splendid  succession. 

About  nine  years  after  the  He-  Erasmna. 
brew  text  had  been  published,  and  while  the 
study  of  Greek  was  gathering  at  the  great 
university  centres,  the  illustrious  Erasmus, 
then  in  his  youth,  and  already  famous  as  a 
scholar,  but  prematurely  wasted  in  form  and 
feature  with  poverty  and  study,  came  over 
from  Holland  to  England  in  order  to  perfect 
his  knowledge  of  the  Greek  in  the  University 
of  Oxford.  It  was  there  that  a  remarkable 
and  lovely  triple  friendship  formed  between 
himself,  John  Colet,  afterward  the  celebrated 
Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  and  Thomas  More,  after- 
ward the  equally  celebrated  Lord  Chancellor 
of  the  kingdom.  The  three  have  since  been 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  51 

called  the  "Oxford  Reformers  of  1498."  In 
the  advanced  and  bold  intelligence  of  these 
young  and  gifted  men,  and  in  their  frank  dis- 
cussion with  each  other  of  the  theological 
questions  which  were  agitating  the  period, 
lay  the  beginning  of  a  subsequent  opposition 
to  the  dogmatic  subtleties  and  speculations  of 
the  "  Schoolmen,"  who  were  the  surviving 
Pharisees  of  the  Dark  Ages  just  left  behind, 
and  who  were  arrayed  in  stout  phalanx  for  many 
years  in  defence  of  the  church  as  it  was.  This 
became  the  great  controversy  of  the  time.  A 
powerful  party  in  the  Roman  Church  resisted 
the  "  New  Learning,"  as  the  study  of  Hebrew 
and  Greek  was  called,  and  every  one  who  had 
in  him  an  advanced  idea  therein  was  accused 
of  resisting  the  church.  In  the  heat  of  the 
conflict  it  was  declared  that  the  study  of  Greek 
would  make  men  Pagans,  and  that  the  study 
of  Hebrew  would  make  them  Jews !  The  dear 
old  Latin  version  was  pathetically  declared  to 
be  crucified  between  two  thieves,  and  the 
Greek  was  the  one  thief,  the  Hebrew  the  other ! 


52  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

In  such  idolatry  as  this  was  held  the  Latin 
translation,  and  in  such  a  strength  of  prejudice 
and  prepossession  stood  the  mass  of  empty 
scholastic  speculation  and  theological  dogmatism 
which  had  obtained  until  that  time. 
Doancoiet.  Meantime  Erasmus  rapidly  in- 

Sir  Thomas 

More.  creased  in   reputation   as   the  first 

scholar  and  philologist  in  Europe.  The  old 
college  friendship  remained  in  full  force,  and 
the  old  congeniality  of  views  continued  and 
intensified.  Dean  Colet,  preaching  in  St. 
Paul's,  grew  clearer  and  stronger  in  declaring 
that  the  study  of  the  Life  of  Christ  and  of 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  were  nearer  the  heart 
of  Christianity,  and  more  influential  in  the 
Christian  life,  than  all  the  cold  and  empty 
dogmas  of  the  schools.  But  Sir  Thomas 
More,  while  in  continued  sympathy  with 
the  war  upon  the  schoolmen  for  the  right 
to  the  "  New  Learning,"  was  less  pronounced 
in  his  opposition  to  the  Church  as  it  was. 
Erasmus  at  In  1509,  Erasmus,  ripe  in  Greek 
and  every  other  knowledge  of  his 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  53 

day, — now  a  great  reputation  everywhere — 
returned  to  England  from  a  sojourn  on  the 
continent,  and  took  up  his  abode,  not  in  Ox- 
ford, but  in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  as 
the  Professor  of  Theology  and  Greek.  His 
fame  as  the  champion  of  an  emancipated 
scholarship  drew  around  him  many  whom  the 
position  of  the  Church  on  this  subject  had 
alienated.  He  remained  there  nearly  five 
years,  and,  during  that  time,  his  influence  in 
"  awakening  the  English  mind  was  greater 
than  that  of  Luther  and  Zuinglius."  So  did 
he  repay  to  England,  by  the  liberality  of  his 
genius,  the  debt  he  owed  to  the  generosity  of 
her  scholarship.  "  The  credit,"  says  Ander- 
son,* "of  being  one  of  the  first  learned  men  in 
Europe,  who  argued  strongly  for  learning  being 
cultivated,  with  a  view7  to  the  benefit  and  in- 
struction of  the  common  people,  can  never  be 
taken  from  Erasmus."  What  he  had  de- 
manded for  himself,  he  demanded  for  every- 
one, and  the  inevitable  conclusion  of  such  a 

*  Annals  of  the  Ens.  Bib.  i.  24. 


54  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

mind  as  bis  was  tbe  rigbt  of  every  one  to  read 
the  Scriptures;  not  only  the  right  of  tbe 
learned  to  read  them  in  the  originals,  but  tbe 
right  of  those  who  were  not  learned  to  read 
them  in  their  native  tongue.  Hear  him.  in  his 
famous  essay,  called  the  "  Paraclesis  :"  *  "I 
utterly  dissent  from  those  who  are  unwilling 


He   advocates       ^j.     foe      gacre(J 

the  translation 


of  ti,,  s,  -nptures  be  rea(j  ^  7  foe  unlearned,  translated 

fur  the  people.  ' 

into  their  vulgar  tongue,  as  though  Christ  had 
taught  such  subtleties  that  they  can  scarcely 
be  understood  even  by  a  few  theologians,  or  as 
though  the  strength  of  tbe  Christian  religion 
consisted  in  man's  ignorance  of  it.  The  mys- 
teries of  kings  it  may  be  safer  to  conceal,  but 
Christ  wished  His  mysteries  to  be  published  as 
openly  as  possible.  I  wish  that  even  the 
weakest  woman  should  read  the  Gospels  — 
should  read  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  And  I 
wish  they  were  translated  into  all  languages. 
*  *  *  To  make  them  understood  is  surely 
the  first  step.  *  *  I  long  that  the  husbnnd- 

*  "  Oxford  Reformers,"  256. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRIXTIXG.  55 

man  sing  portions  of  them  to  himself  as  ho 
follows  the  plough,  that  the  weaver  should 
hum  them  to  the  time  of  his  shuttle,  that  the 
traveller  should  beguile  with  their  stories  the 
tedium  of  his  journey." 

Erasmus,  so  wise  as  never  to  take     »e  undertakes 

the  publication 

an  extreme  position  in  his  life,  so  of  a  Gr«*  text 

of  the  New  Tes. 

evenly  balanced  as  always  to  resist  *«n>ent. 
Romish  bigotry  on  one  side,  and  Protestant 
radicalism  on  the  other,  declared  again  and 
again  this  remarkable  and  revolutionary 
conviction,  which,  while  it  would  seem  to 
question  the  authority  of  the  former  and 
encourage  the  tendency  of  the  latter,  really- 
made  him  in  his  own  person  the  earliest  layer 
of  that  essential  foundation,  deeper  than  which 
no  speculation  or  controversy  could  go.  It 
icas  Era* ma*  icho  became  the  founder  of  the 
New  Testament  in  printed  Greek.  It  was  he 
who  laid  the  original  masonry  on  which  the 
structure  of  the  next  English  version  was  to 
rise.  At  the  solicitation  of  Froben,  a  cele- 
brated printer  of  Basle,  he  undertook  the 


56  OUR  ENGLISH  nilil.E  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

great  work  of  forming  a  text  out  of  the  few 
and  scanty  Greek  manuscripts  of  the  New 
Testament  Scriptures,  which  were  then  known 
and  accessible,  and  of  publishing  it  to  the 
world.  The  wide-spread  interest  in  the  enter- 
prise, started  under  such  eminent  auspices, 
may  be  imagined. 
cardinal  xi-  Before  it  had  been  begun  rumors 

menes  engages  in 

the  same  work    had  come  of  a  similar  undertaking 

for  the  whole  Bi- 
ble, contemplated    and    commenced    by 

the  celebrated  Cardinal  Ximenes,  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Alcala,  in  Spain,  to  be  performed 
on  a  splendid  scale,  with  every  facility  in  the 
employment  of  many  learned  men.  access  to 
the  best  manuscripts,  and  the  use  of  the  finest 
presses.  But  the  poor  and  single-handed 
scholar,  urged  by  his  printer,  worked  the  more 
earnestly  to  anticipate  the  issue  of  his  formi- 
dable competitor.  No  manuscript  earlier  than 
the  tenth  century  was  known  to  him,  and,  of 
all  he  collated,  none  were  perfect  enough  to 
furnish  him  with  a  complete  text.  In  a  few 
instances  he  was  obliged  to  supply  a  chasm  in 


THE  AGE  OF  PR1STISG.  57 

the  Greek  by  rendering  back  the  Latin  Vul- 
gate into  Greek.  A  thing,  by  the  way,  which 
Ximenes  himself  was  also  obliged  to  do.* 

The  venerable  Froben  gave  himself  to  the 
work  with  self-forgetful  devotion :  like  his  co- 
laborer,  thoughtful  not  of  pecuniary  profit,  but 
of  developing  an  undertaking  which  was  of 
such  importance  to  the  age  and  to  be  so  fruitful 
for  human  good. 

But  Erasmus  had  projected  the     The  text  of 

.  .  .  i    •    i  Erasmus  issued 

wrork  in  a  combination  which  gave  with  the  works 

.  of  St.  Jerome. 

both  himselt  and  his  printer  a  task 
of  immense  magnitude.  He  had  resolved  to 
bring  out  simultaneously  with  the  Greek  of  the 
New  Testament,  the  works  of  the  great  father, 
Jerome,  who  himself  had,  eleven  hundred 
years  before,  taken  a  stand  in  some  respects 
similar  to  that  of  the  present  reformers, 
and  had  advocated,  amid  much  opposition, 
a  version  of  the  Greek  Scriptures  in  the  Latin 
vernacular,  on  the  basis  of  an  old  Latin  version 

*  See  Tregelles.  "  Account  of  the  Printed  Text  of  the 
Greek  New  Testament,"  21. 


53  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

already  in  existence  but  very  corrupt,  and 
who  finally  had  produced  this  self-same  Vul- 
gate, now  so  universally  received  as  the  stand- 
ard and  ultimate  authority !  *  There  was  a 
poetic  symmetry,  therefore,  and  something 
more,  in  the  resolve  to  print  the  works  of  the 
great  author  of  this  early  version,  with  the 
long-neglected  and  now  disparaged  original. 
The  t.-xt  of  In  the  race  with  the  Cardinal 

Erasmus  the  first 

published.  and  his  co-laborers,  the  lone  scholar 
came  out  first.  In  fact  the  Cardinal  did  not 
race  at  all,  but  kept  back  his  work  till  he  had 
the  whole  Bible  in  print.  The  year  1516  is 
memorable  for  the  appearance  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, for  the  first  time,  in  print.f 

It  came  out  in  the  heavy,  lumbering  volumes 
of  the  primitive  press,  and  from  that  moment 

*  '•  St.  Jerome  was  the  father  who  in  his  day  strove  to 
give  to  the  people  the  Bible  in  their  vulgar  tongue."  Oxford 
Reformers  265. 

f  Strictly  speaking,  part  of  the  Cardinal's  N.  T.  was  in 
print  before  Erasmus's  text  went  to  press.  But  Erasmus's 
text  was  the  first  published. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTtSG.  59 

the  yellow  and  aged  transcripts  on  parchment 
and  paper,  the  heritage  and  work  of  monastic 
copyists  for  a  thousand  years  or  more,  entered 
the  era  of  endless  youth,  freshness,  and  stand- 
ard accuracy. 

Accompanying  this  (in  subsequent  revisions; 
was  even  another  evidence  of  labor  and  devo- 
tion :  a  new  version  in  Latin  by  Erasmus  and 
theological  notes. 

The  work,  so  complete  in  idea  if     This  text  the 

basis   of  all   fu- 

not  in  execution,  raised,  as  might  ture  editions, 
have  been  expected,  a  storm  of  opposition  and 
a  host  of  enemies.  Six  years  afterward  the 
splendid  volumes  of  Cardinal  Ximenes  ap- 
peared. But,  by  this  time,  Erasmus  had  made 
and  published  three  revisions  of  his  own  work. 
Only  six  hundred  copies,  in  all,  were  issued  of 
the  Complutensian  Polyglot,  as  Ximenes'  work 
was  called.  It  was  therefore  very  scarce  and 
little  used.*  In  his  next  revision  and  edition, 
the  fourth,  Erasmus  made  it  contribute  to  the 

*  Tregelles.    "  Historical  Account  of  the  Printed  Greek 
Text  of  the  New  Testament,"  27. 


60  OCR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

perfection  of  his  own  text,  and  so  it  came  to 
pass  that  the  Greek  text  of  Erasmus,  the  one 
first  issued  and  the  one  most  widely  circulated, 
maintained  its  place  as  a  foundation,  which 
others  might  improve  but  not  supersede.  In 
the  progress  of  early  textual  criticism,  after 
this,  the  work  of  Ximenes  continued  to  be  used 
by  others  also,  but  only  as  a  side  contribution 
to  the  greater  purity  of  the  text,  which  was 
still  anxiously  sought. 


The  first  Eng-       "VVe  now  take  a  step  further  in 

lish  Version 

made  from  the     Our  history,  and  come  to  another 

Greek  was  by 

wm.  Tyndaie.  epochal  man — the  pioneer  of  the 
next  endeavor — one  also  created  by  the 
emergency,  and  who  feared  not  to  meet  its 
issues :  to  take  Wycliffe's  place  almost  in  per- 
fect reproduction;  but  whose  work,  while  it 
was  to  bring  suffering  upon  himself  to  an  extent 
that  Wycliffe  never  knew— even  unto  exile 
and  martyrdom — was  nevertheless  destined  to 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  61 

remain  so  vitally  wrought  into  the  type  and 
texture  and  substance  of  our  English  Bible  as 
never  to  pass  away  in  any  future  revision  with- 
out an  absolute  change  in  the  style  and  char- 
acter of  that  Household  Word. 

This  man  of  the  new  era  was  the  brave,  the 
rugged,  the  devoted,  the  invincible  WILLIAM 
TYNDALE: — "the  patriarch,"  says  Plumptre, 
"  in  no  remote  ancestry,  of  the  Authorized 
Version  :"  "  more  than  Cranmer  and  Ridley 
the  hero  of  the  English  Reformation."  For 
himself  he  appeared  as  a  reformer  a  few 
years  too  soon,  but  for  his  work,  just  in 
time.  It  was  in  the  beginning  of  Henry  vm. 
the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth  that  he  be- 
came known,  and  before  there  was  the  least 
tendency  on  the  part  of  that  monarch  to  break 
with  the  Papal  power.  The  king,  who  was  a 
second  son,  and  had  been  educated  by  his 
father  in  theology,  that  he  might  become  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  prided  himself  upon  his 
knowledge  of  divinity.  He  had  even  written 
a  book  in  defence  of  the  Papal  authority,  for 


62  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

which  the  Pope  had  given  him  the  title  of 
"  Defender  of  the  Faith."  But  on  the  other 
hand  he  looked  kindly  on  the  "  New  Learning," 
and  did  not  share  the  prejudice  of  the  school- 
men against  it.  Cardinal  Wolsey,  also,  was  a 
munificent  patron  of  letters,  and  Tunstal,  Bishop 
of  London,  was  a  fine  scholar  in  Latin,  Greek 
and  Hebrew.  Still  there  was  no  sign  of  the 
Reformation  movement  in  this  quarter.  The 
kingdom  was  pledged  to  Rome.  Even  Sir 
Thomas  More  remained  a  rigid  and  prejudiced 
Romanist,  although  in  sympathy  with  the 
"New  Learning." 

Luther's  version  On  the  continent  the  situation 
was  widely  different.  The  Re- 
formation had  begun,  and  had  grown  into 
stupendous  proportions.  Numerous  students 
in  Germany  had  already  translated  separate 
books  of  the  Bible,  when  Luther,  single- 
handed,  undertook  and  accomplished  that 
great  Version  of  the  whole  Bible  which  did  the 
same  service  for  his  native  tongue  in  fixing  its 
idiom  and  character,  that  our  version  after- 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  63 

wards  did  for  ours.  His  New  Testament  ap- 
peared in  1522.  The  whole  Bible  in  1534, 
and  a  revised  edition  in  1541. 

To    find    Tyndale    we   must   go     Birth  and  edu- 

_        .  .  -,  t  f,f-  *  i          cation  of  Tyndale. 

back  to  the  year  14/7,  when  he 
was  born,  in  an  obscure  village  of  Gloucester- 
shire. He  was  brought  up  from  a  child  at 
Oxford,  and  became  a  priest  and  a  Franciscan 
friar.  In  his  earliest  manhood  he  was  "  sin- 
gularly addicted  to  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures," and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  had 
translated  portions  of  the  New  Testament.* 
While  Erasmus  resided  in  Cambridge,  1509- 
1514,  as  Professor  of  Greek,  he  went  himself 
thither,  doubtless  drawn  by  the  fame  of  the 
great  continental  scholar.  A  few  years  after 
he  returned  to  Gloucestershire,  and  became  a 
tutor  in  the  family  of  a  Sir  John  "Welch,  at 
Little  Soderby,  not  far  from  Bristol.  No 
other  spot  in  England  was  a  greater  hot-bed 
of  the  Church  in  its  most  pretentious  and 
most  bigoted  form  than  Gloucestershire  at  that 


c 


Plurnptre.     Smith's  Bib.  Diet.  iii.  1668. 


64  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

time.  It  was  "  full  of  abbots,  deans,  archdea- 
cons, and  divers  other  doctors  and  great  bene- 
ficed  men."*  Thus  was  Tyndale  surrounded 
by  the  Church  in  its  most  sumptuous  exhibi- 
tions of  lordly  pride.  But,  like  Wycliffe  nearly 
a  century  and  a  half  before,  his  familiarity 
with  the  Scriptures  had  so  enlarged  his  views 
of  Divine  truth  that  he  was  brought  into  the 
fiercest  antagonism  with  these  arrogant  repre- 
His  ccntrover-  sentatives  of  a  corrupt  church.  His 

eies  with  church 

dignitaries.  position  as  a  tutor  in  a  wealthy 
household,  much  resorted  to  by  them,  threw 
him  frequently  into  their  society.  He  was 
never  prudent  of  speech  in  these  controversies, 
chiefly  talks  at  the  table,  never  circumspect 
and  never  afraid,  and  at  last  he  aroused 
their  suspicion  and  hatred.  A  single  incident, 
related  by  Anderson,  is  characteristic  of  his 
whole  manner.  "  Tyndale  happening  to  be 
in  the  company  of  a  reputed  learned  divine, 
and  in  conversation  having  brought  him  to 
a  point  from  which  there  was  no  escape,  he 

*  Eng.  Hexapla  13. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  65 

broke  up  with  this  exclamation :  '  We  were 
better  to  be  without  God's  law,  than  the 
Pope's!'  This  was  an  ebullition  in  perfect 
harmony  with  the  state  of  the  country  at  the 
moment,  but  it  was  more  than  the  piety  of 
Tyndale  could  bear.  '  I  defy  the  Pope,'  said 
he,  in  reply ;  '  and  all  his  laws  j  Hi*  resolTe  *<> 

translate   the 

and  if  God  spare  my  life,  ere  many  scriptures. 
years,  I  will  cause  a  boy  that  driveth  the 
plough  to  know  more  of  the  Scripture  than 
thou  dost.' "  *  This  utterance,  and  his,  so- 
called,  heretical  attitude  generally,  brought 
matters  to  a  crisis.  He  was  no  longer  safe  in 
Gloucestershire. 

But  the  boast  had  evidently  been     The  general 

preparation  for 

the  outbreak  of  a  secret  and  long-  tne  undertakiog 
cherished  determination  to  give  the  Scriptures 
to  the  "  lay  people."  Everything,  apparently, 
was  now  ready  for  him.  He  himself  was  a 
ripe  scholar  in  Greek,  and  a  master  of  English 
also.  The  Greek  text  of  the  New  Testament 

*  Anderson.     Annals  i.  36.     Westcott.     Eng.  Bib.  note 
32. 


66  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

had  been  published  by  Erasmus  six  years  be- 
fore. Luther's  translation  of  it  into  German  was 
just  finished  and  passing  through  the  press. 
Abroad  a  great  reformation  was  shaking  the 
Church.  At  home,  the  people  were  eager  to 
read  and  to  think  for  themselves,  and  a  wide 
sympathy  with  the  Continental  movement  was 
smouldering  among  them.  All  that  the  poor 
scholar  needed  was  to  be  pecuniarily  supported 
while  engaged  in  the  work. 
He  applies  to  So  in  1522  he  journeyed  to  Lon- 

the  Bishop  of  .  . 

London  without    don,  and,  unsophisticated  provincial 


as  he  was,  evidently  expected  to 
find  the  Church  differently  represented  in  its 
dignitaries  there.  The  fame  of  Tunstal,  Bishop 
of  London,  as  a  Greek  scholar,  and  an  en- 
lightened patron  of  the  "New  Learning,"  had 
been  trumpeted  by  Erasmus,  and  Tyndale 
therefore  sought  the  Episcopal  palace,  and 
opened  before  the  Bishop  the  plan  of  the  pro- 
posed translation.  To  prove  his  competency 
for  the  task,  Tyndale  submitted  to  Tunstal's 
examination  a  translation  of  an  oration  of  Iso- 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  67 

crates.  But  the  poor  priest,  so  far  from  being 
admitted  a  member  of  the  episcopal  household, 
was  coldly  dismissed,  and  told  to  look  for  what 
he  wanted  elsewhere  in  London.  He  soon 
found  that  the  spirit  of  Gloucestershire  was  in 
the  metropolis  also.  "  I  understood  at  last," 
writes  he,  "  not  only  that  there  was  no  room 
in  my  lord  of  London's  palace  to  translate  the 
New  Testament,  but  also  that  there  was  no 
place  to  do  it  in  all  England'1* 

While  so  dependent  and  knowing  not  which 
way  to  look  or  to  turn,  Monmouth,  an  alder- 
man of  London,  a  large-hearted  and  liberal- 
minded  merchant  who  had  heard  him  preach 
once  or  twice,  became  so  practically  his  friend 
as  to  help  him  with  the  money  necessary  for 
his  journey  to  the  Continent —  Retires  to  the 

Continent. 

whither  accordingly  he  went,  there- 
after to  live  and  labor,  as  he  touchingly  says, 
in  "  poverty,  exile,  bitter  absence  from  friends, 
hunger,  thirst  and  cold,  great  dangers,  and  in- 

*  Anderson.     Annals  i.  39. 


68  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

numerable  other  hard  and  sharp  fightings."* 
His  first  place  of  refuge  was  Hamburg,  where, 
before  the  end  of  the  year  1524,  he  translated 
and  published  the  Gospels  of  St.  issu^  Matthew 

and  Mark. 

Matthew  and  St.  Mark  in  separate 
volumes  with  notes.f  Thus  amid  the  ocean  of 
a  foreign  language  the  English  version  began  to 
rise  like  a  coral  island,  showing  itself  first  above 
the  surface  in  this  rim  and  ring  of  an  experi- 
mental development  of  a  mighty  plan. 

From  Hamburg  he  went  to  Cologne,  with  his 
assistant,!  and  set  to  work  upon  the  entire  New 
Testament,  but  was  interrupted  by  a  spy  § 
upon  his  movements,  and  only  succeeded  in 

*  Westcott.     Hist.  Bib.  36. 

f  A  forthcoming  life  of  Tyndale,  by  the  Rev.  R.  Dundus, 
notices  that  "  no  printer  is  known  to  have  been  in  Ham- 
burg about  these  years,"  in  which  case  the  place  of  the 
first  issue  is  unknown. — First  Printed  Eng.  New  T. — Fac 
Sim.  Pref.  5. 

J  William  Roy,  author  of  the  satire  against  Wolsey, 
"  Rede  me  and  be  not  wrothe." 

§  Cochlaeus — an  exile  at  Cologne — "  a  virulent  enemy  of 
the  Reformation." 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  69 

saving  his  papers  and  printed  sheets  by  a  flight 
by  ship  up  the  Rhine,  to  Worms.     Forced  to  nee 

to  Worms. 

Here   he  found   a  safe  refuge  in  a 
city,  whither  only  four  years  before  Luther  had 
declared  we  would  go  "  if  there  were  as  many 
devils  in  it  as  there  were  tiles  on  the  houses." 
It  had  now  became  "  wholly  Lutheran." 

Meantime  word  was  sent  to  King     Frightful  re- 
ports of  his  work 

Henry,  Cardinal  Wolsey,  and  reach  England. 
Bishop  Fisher,  of  the  peril  in  which  England 
stood.  Dreadful  rumors  prevailed  of  a  certain 
Englishman  who,  at  the  instance  of  Luther, 
had  translated  the  New  Testament  into  English, 
and  who,  within  a  few  days,  intended  "to 
return  with  the  same  imprinted  into  England," 
and  it  would  "fill  the  realm  with  Lutherans."* 
A  curious  bit  of  table-talk  comes  down  to  us 
in  the  diary  of  a  German  scholar  f  dated  in  this 
year  1526,  which  gives  us  the  gossip  of  the 
time.  After  mentioning  the  discussion  of  many 
political  and  other  matters  usual  at  a  dinner 

*  Westcott.     Hist.  Eng.  Bible  41. 
f  Herman  von  Busche,  11  Aug.  1526. 


70  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

table  of  cultivated  people,  Erasmus  and  his 
literary  conflicts  being  one  of  the  topics,  he 
speaks  of  a  person  at  the  table  who  told  him 
that  six  thousand  copies  of  the  English  New 
Testament  had  been  printed  at  Worms :  that 
it  was  translated  by  an  Englishman  who  lived 
there  with  two  of  his  countrymen,  who  was  so 
complete  a  master  of  seven  languages,  Hebrew, 
Greek,  Latin,  Italian,  Spanish,  English,  French, 
that  you  would  fancy  that  whichever  he  spoke 
in  was  his  mother  tongue.  He  added  that  the 
English,  in  spite  of  the  active  opposition  of 
the  king,  were  so  eager  for  the  Gospel,  as  to 
affirm  that  they  would  buy  a  New  Testament 
even  if  they  had  to  give  a  hundred  thousand 
pieces  of  money  for  it."  * 
ms  stratagem  Accompanying  the  message  which 

for  getting  the         111  T-< 

version  into  Eng-  had  been  sent  to  England,  warning 

land.  ... 

the  authorities  "  to  prevent  the 
importation  of  the  pernicious  article  of 
merchandise,"  was  a  description  of  the  quarto 

*Westcott.     Eng.  Bible  42.    Fac  Sim.  Text  of  Tyn- 
dale's  N.  T.  25. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  71 

volume  which  Tyndale  was  preparing.  Not 
to  be  foiled  in  that  way,  he  resorted  to  an 
ingenious  stratagem  for  his  proposed  invasion. 
He  set  to  work  upon  another  edition,  a  small 
octavo,  and  when  it  was  printed,  he  returned 
to  the  other  and  completed  that  also.  His  plan 
was  that  the  large  volume  should  attract  the 
attention  of  the  English  authorities,  and,  under 
cover  of  that  diversion,  the  unknown  small 
one  should  slip  in  among  the  people.  And  so 
it  turned  out.  Both  Testaments  were  shipped 
to  England  in  number  about  six  thousand,  and 
got  into  the  country.  Just  at  the  moment  cir- 
cumstances happened  to  be  propitious.  Wolsey 
was  engrossed  in  state  affairs,  then  in  a  very 
critical  condition  at  home  and  abroad.  Tunstal 
had  been  sent  to  Spain  on  a  political  mission. 
The  king  was  keeping  Christmas  in  private. 

The  books  were  eagerly  purchased     its  opposite  re- 
ception by  the 
and  became  widely  but  secretly  cir-  people,  and  by 

the  authorities. 

culated,  not  only   in    London,   but 

in  Oxford  and  Cambridge.*     It  was  savagely 

*  "  The  printed  English  Testaments  being  ready,  there 


72          OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AXD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

attacked  by  high  dignitaries  both  of  the 
church  and  state.  Wolsey  advised  the  king 
to  condemn  it  to  be  burnt,  which  he  did. 
Sir  Thomas  More,  who  was  especially  shocked 
by  the  independence  of  a  translation  which 
could  ignore  all  ecclesiastical  and  technical 
words,  denounced  the  translation  as  "ignorant, 
dishonest,  and  heretical."  *  When  Tunstal  re- 
turned he  found  both  editions  circulating  every- 
where in  his  diocese.  He  mounted  the  pulpit 
of  "Paul's  Cross,"  and  preached  against  it, 
and  afterward,  in  conjunction  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  issued  a  mandate  requir- 
ing "the  collection  and  surrender  of  copies." 

was  a  people  prepared  to  receive  them.  For  upwards  of  a 
century,  amid  all  manner  of  national  vicissitudes,  the 
Lollards  had  been  multiplying  written  copies  of  the  original 
translation  of  Wycliffe,  and  of  its  revised  version  by  John 
Purvey.  They  had  increased,  despite  continuous  perse- 
cution ;  and  were  now  a  scattered  unorganized  association 
of  tradesmen,  craftsmen,  and  such  like,  especially  numerous 
in  those  districts  nearest  the  continent,  and  therefore  most 
accessible  to  influences  from  without."  "  First  Printed 
Text,"  40. 

*  Westcott.     Eng.  Bible  42. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  73 

All  this  failing,  and  more  editions  coming  in, 
the  curious  resort  was  had  of  buying  up  the 
books  both  in  England  and  on  the  Continent. 
But  this,  of  course,  was  of  no  avail.  The 
popular  interest  in  the  work  partook  of  the 
nature  of  a  conflagration.  It  was  too  wide- 
spread to  be  stamped  out.  It  was  too  fierce 
and  earnest  wherever  it  burned,  to  be  quenched. 
The  act  of  purchasing  the  editions  was  only 
pouring  oil  on  that  seat  of  the  fire,  the  print- 
ing press  of  Tyndale.  The  whole  power  of  the 
British  throne  could  not  extirpate  the  book. 
A  secret  organization  was  formed  to  receive 
and  shelter  it.*  Every  device  was  employed 
in  importing  it,  so  that  by  the  year  1530  six 

*  "  These  Testament  Circulators  deserve  to  be  held  in 
perpetual  honor.  They  were  Anti- Papists  before  the  Testa- 
ments arrived  in  the  country.  They  instinctively  saw  in 
them  the  great  instruments  of  deliverance  of  the  people 
from  priestly  thraldom  that  weighed  so  heavily  upon  them  • 
and  at  the  hazard  of  their  worldly  health  and  wealth  they 
devoted  themselves  to  the  dangerous  work  of  their  distri- 
bution far  and  wide/' — First  Printed  Text — Fac  Simile 
47. 


74  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

editions  of  fifteen  thousand  copies  were  spread 
throughout  England.  And  yet  if  there  had 
been  no  further  multiplication  of  them,  even 
this  great  number  had  not  been  enough  to 
withstand  the  endeavors  to  destroy  them,  for, 
so  persistent  and  thorough  was  the  search,  that 
to-day  only  a  mutilated  fragment  or  two  re- 
mains of  all  this  multitude  of  copies.* 

*  Anderson.     Westcott.     Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  45. 

"  The  most  valuable  of  the  late  old  English  reprints  is 
unquestionably  the  choice  photolithograph  perfect  fac  simile 
of  the  Unique  Fragment  of  the  first  printed  English  X>ic 
Testament,  translated  by  William  Tyndale.  It  was  prob- 
ably executed  at  Cologne  in  1525.  Its  existence  was  long 
doubted  until  the  discovery  of  the  precious  fragment  con- 
taining Tyndale's  "  Prologge"  and  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mat- 
thew only,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Rodd,  the  bookseller.  It  was 
purchased  by  Mr.  Grenville,  and  now  forms  the  most 
precious  article  of  the  library  bequeathed  to  the  British 
Museum.  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  value  of  a  non- 
existent thing,  but  it  may  be  safely  said  that  a  fine  perfect 
copy  would  not  wait  long  for  a  purchaser  at  10,000/.  in 
England,  and  very  likely  America  might  dispute  its  pos- 
session. The  reprint,  most  completely  edited  by  Mr. 
Edward  Arber,  contains  a  full  examination  of  the  very 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING  75 

But  the  sturdy  translator  across  the  Channel 
kept  his  printers  at  work,  and  the  steady 
stream  of  imported  Testaments  ceased  not. 
They  came  even  on  in  the  grain-ships,  for  En- 
gland was  then  starving  as  much  for  food  as 
for  the  bread  of  life. 

During  all  this,  when  he  found     In  °rder todis- 

arm  opposition, 

that    the   opposition  was   in   great  he  omits  his 

"  notes  and  com- 
part   personal,     owing     to    certain  ments." 

tracts  he  had  written,  and  especially  to  the 
notes  with  which  his  work  was  accompanied, 
he  offered  to  withhold  the  latter,  and  to  let 
the  Scriptures  go  bare  of  comment  or  explana- 
tion to  the  people,  promising  "  never  to  write 
more."  So  free  as  this  was  his  whole  effort  of 
self-interest  or  of  the  ambition  to  propagate  his 
own  views.  But  the  translation  itself  was  still 

perplexing  literary  history  of  the  early  versions  of  William 
Tyndale  and  his  coadjutor,  William  Roy,  whose  labors 
were  so  effectually  effaced  by  the  Romanist  authorities  that 
their  story  has  to  be  disentangled  from  the  merest  fragment 
of  evidence.  It  forms  a  small  quarto  volume,  elegantly 
printed."—"  Book-Buyer." 


76  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

too  individual  and  independent — too  clear  a 
mirror  for  the  scarlet  woman  to  admire  herself 
in.  It  needed  the  dimness  imparted  by  super- 
stition, tradition,  and  dogma,  before  it  would  suit 
her  complexion. 

This  history  would  be  extended  too  long  if 
all  were  told  which  happened  to  Tyndale  and 
his  work  during  these  thirteen  years  :  the  per- 
secutions and  annoyances  and  treacheries 
which  he  suffered ;  well  as  their  detail  would 
illustrate  his  heroic  character  and  Christian 
patience.  "  He  had  been  so  harassed  with 
enemies  that,  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  '  very 
death  would  have  been  pleasanter  to  him  than 
life.' "  He  wras  constantly  compelled  to  keep 
his  whereabouts  a  secret,  as  his  person  was 
never  out  of  danger. 
HIS  repeated  All  this  time,  while  working  off 

revisions  of  his 

version.  edition   after  edition   of    his    New 

Testament,  he  was  by  continual  and  laborious 
revision  making  it  more  and  more  perfect. 
Besides  the  suggestions  of  his  own  mind,  he 

*  Anderson.     Annals  i.  290. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  77 

was  always  ready  to  receive  and  adopt  hints 
for  its  improvement  from  whatever  source 
they  might  come,  taking  an  inspiration  here 
and  there  from  Luther's  version,  and  a  correc- 
tion now  and  then  from  the  Vulgate  or  the 
Latin  version  of  Erasmus. 

But  his  labors  were  not  confined     HO  undertakes 

a  Version  of  the 

to  the  New  Testament.  He  had,  ow  Testament. 
at  quite  an  early  part  of  this  period,  set  to 
work  also  upon  the  more  voluminous  Hebrew 
Old  Testament.  Probably  he  had  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  Hebrew  before  he  left  England, 
but  doubtless  he  had  perfected  his  acquaint- 
ance with  it  in  his  wanderings  through  Ham- 
burg, Cologne,  Worms,  and  Antwerp,  cities 
then  filled  with  Jews,  and  men  famous  for 
Hebrew  learning 

In  1530*  he  issued  a  translation  of  Genesis 
and  Deuteronomy,  just  as  he  had  before  two 

*  The  year  before  he  was  shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Holland  while  on  the  way  to  get  part  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment printed,  losing  his  MS.  and  money.     Encyc.  Britan- 
nica  xiv.  400. 
6 


78  OUR  ENGLISH  BJBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

-Genesis    of  the  Gospels,  in  separate  volumes. 

imd  Deuterono- 
my, Rnd  finally     Soon   after  he  published   the  entire 

the  whole  Penta- 
teuch and  Jonah.   Peutateuch.      Three  years  later  ap- 
peared  the   Book    of   Jonah.     He   never   got 
further   with    this    part   of    his    undertaking 
(except  some  manuscript  translations),  and  it 
was  left  to  other  hands  to  finish.     That  which 
interrupted  him  was  a  call  to  martyrdom. 
A  great  change       But,  some  time  before  this  took 

iu  England — 

Henry  breaks      place,  a  great  change  had  come  in 

with  the  1'ope. 

England.  The  king  had  dissolved 
his  relations  with  the  Pope,  and  the  Church  of 
England  had  resumed  her  ancient  independ- 
ence. A  kinder  feeling  grew  on  the  part  of 
Henry  and  his  counsellors  toward  the  project 
of  an  English  version  ;  for  its  production  would 
strengthen  the  king's  position  with  the  people 
and  help  to  alienate  his  realms  from  Rome. 
It  is  a  significant  incident  which  we  hear,  of 
„ ,  .  the  Protestant  Queen,  Anne  Boleyn. 

Anne  Boleyn  a  J 

rnterposition.  saving  from  punishment  a  man 
who  had  been  especially  active  in  circulating 
the  New  Testament.  And  after  awhile,  when 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  79 

the  news  of  her  auspicious  influence  reached 
Tyndale,  we  find  him  preparing  a  magnificent 
copy  of  his  New  Testament,  sumptuously 
printed  and  illuminated  on  vellum,  and 
splendidly  bound,  and  sending  it  to  her  with 
her  royal  name  inscribed  in  crimson  letters  on 
its  gilded  edges.  This  book  is  still  to  be  seen 
in  the  British  Museum,  and  Mr.  Plumptre 
speaks  of  passages  in  it  underscored  in  red  ink, 
"  such  as  might  be  marked  for  devotional  pur- 
poses." * 

Before  he  died  Tyndale  had  the     An  edition  pre- 
paring by  the 
satisfaction    of    hearing    that    the  royai  printer. 

royal  English  printer,  belonging  to  the  party 
of  the  queen,  was  preparing  to  issue  an  edition 
in  London  of  his  own  last  revised  Testament. 
It  appeared  after  his  death.  In  this  way  only 
did  the  exile  return  to  his  native  land,  but  it 
was  a  return  more  sweet  to  him  in  the  crown- 
ing of  his  life's  work  than  any  personal  freedom 
to  which  he  might  have  attained.  That  he 
never  had  again.  The  man  who,  as  Anderson 

*  Smith.     Diet.  Bib.  iii.  1669. 


80  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

says,   "had   been  deemed  of  such  importance 

that  he  had  enjoyed  the  distinction  of  having 

been  pursued  by  the  agent  of  Wolsey  the  cardi- 

Tymiaie  be-      nal   an(j  of  the  king  himself,  of  Sir 

trayed  and  im- 
prisoned. Thomas  More  the  Lord  Chancellor, 

and  even  Cromwell,  the  future  vicegerent,"* 
was  at  last  overtaken  by  treachery — a  treachery 
singularly  Judas-like  in  being  a  betrayal  by 
a  trusted  friend — arrested,  and  imprisoned  in 
the  castle  of  Vilvorde  near  Brussels. 
cranmer'sat-  While  he  lay  there,  in  his  living 

tempt  to  issue  a 

new  version.  tomb,  his  spirit  was  having  even 
another  strange  apparition  at  home.  The  time 
was  already  growing  so  rapidly  ripe  for  an 
English  version  that  Cranmer,  now  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  had  carried  a  resolution  through 
Convocation  that  the  Bible  should  be  translated, 
and  he  took  what  is  supposed  to  be  by  some 
Tyndale's  New  Testament,  by  others  Wyc- 
lifle's,  and  cutting  it  into  eight  or  ten  parts, 
sent  the  fragments  to  as  many  ''best-learned 
bishops,"  requesting  that  they  should  be 

*  Anderson.     Annals  i.  417. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  81 

returned  corrected  on  a  certain  day  at  Lambeth 
Palace.  But  the  result  was  unsatisfactory, 
and  Cranmer  gave  up  the  attempt  in  that 
quarter.  The  fact,  however,  of  such  an  at- 
tempt is  an  indication  of  the  great  change  of 
sentiment  among  the  English  authorities. 
The  famous  Thomas  Cromwell,  cromweii's  at- 

tempt. 

King  Henry's  wise  and  able  pilot  in 
all  these  troublous  times,  when   the   English 
Church  was  tacking  off  the  lee-shore  of  Rome, 
now  saw  his  opportunity  and  turned  the  helm 
in   that  direction.     But  the    account  of  this 
belongs  to  the  next  stage  of  this  history.     It  is 
enough  to  say  that  before   Tyndale  died  he 
beheld  the  unfinished  portions  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament  completed    by   another   and   friendly 
hand,  that  of  Miles  Coverdale,  his     coverage's 
own  translation  retouched   by  the 
same  skilful  fingers  (though  sometimes  blended 
too  much   with  other  phraseology),  and   the 
whole  Bible,  including  so  much  of  his  own  mas- 
sive and  splendid  contribution,  enter  England, 
with  no  voice,  royal  or  ecclesiastical,   raised 


82  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS, 

against  it,  his  name,  to  be  sure,  sunk  out  of 
sight  for  the  sake  of  appearances,  but  his  im- 
mortal work  standing  unshaken,  to  become,  for 
ever  after,  the  adopted  form  of  the  future 
English  Bible,  the  type  of  its  architecture  and 
the  material  of  its  construction. 
Tyndale  exe-  But  while  the  gift  was  received, 

cuted.  . 

the  giver  was  more  than  unacknow- 
ledged. He  was  persecuted  now  to  his  death. 
Through  English  counsel,  solicitation,  and 
management,  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth 
issued  a  decree  under  which  Tyndale  was  led 
forth  from  his  dungeon,  conducted  to  a  neigh- 
boring eminence,  tied  to  a  stake,  but  mercifully 
strangled  before  he  was  burnt  to  ashes.  The 
last  words  that  escaped  from  him  before  the 
agony  of  suffocation  was  a  prayer  for  his  coun- 
trymen in  a  prayer  for  his  king :  "  Lord,  open 
the  King  of  England's  eyes  !" 
The  character  The  character  of  Tyndale  may 

be  safely  said  to  be  one  of  the 
noblest  in  Christian  annals.  It  is  the  best 
part  of  his  record  that  no  faction  or  sect  ever 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  83 

gathered  under  his  name.  Self-exiled  from 
his  country,  he  was  also  an  exile  from  him- 
self. Positive  and  aggressive  as  he  was  in  his 
many  writings  and  pamphlet  conflicts,  and 
the  notes  which  at  first  accompanied  his  trans- 
lation, yet  he  was  singularly  impersonal  and 
self-forgetful  in  it  all.  If  he  had  had  more  of 
worldly  wisdom  and  less  unsophisticated  trust 
in  men,  the  base  betrayal  which  finally  de- 
stroyed him  would  not  have  been  possible. 
He  was  a  man  altogether  given  up  to  the 
thought  which  moved  him,  and  there  is  enough 
in  his  writings  and  in  his  life  to  prove  that  if 
the  great  object  to  which  he  had  devoted  all, 
had  been  attained,  namely,  the  opening  of  the 
Scriptures  to  the  glad  entrance  of  the  poorest 
and  humblest  of  his  countrymen,  he  would 
have  been  willing  to  have  died,  as  he  did  die, 
in  the  simple  happiness  of  that  unshared  con- 
sciousness. No  public  plaudits,  no  royal  rec- 
ognition would  have  pleased  him  as  well.  And 
so,  with  all  his  publicity,  he  kept  himself 
really  inconspicuous.  He  was  like  one  who  had 


84  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

been  the  projector  of  a  great  edifice,  but  who 
was  content  to  secretly  inspire  its  style  of 
architecture  and  let  it  appear  to  be  the  sugges- 
tion of  other  and  more  accepted  minds.  His 
consciousness  of  success  was  his  best  reward.* 
And  even  thus  he  now  appears :  one  of  the 

*  "  Tyndale  saw  his  life's  work  accomplished.  Ere  he  was 
taken  away,  the  English  ploughboy  came  to  know  the 
Scriptures.  *  *  *  Ceaselessly  for  twelve  years,  at  the  least, 
he  labored  at  his  great  work ;  yet,  so  to  speak,  in  secret : 
which  is  one  reason  for  his  not  having  been  adequately 
appreciated  by  posterity.  *  *  *  Much  more  will  some  day 
be  known  of  him.  Among  the  archives  of  Belgium  may 
yet  be  found  the  papers  seized  in  his  house  at  Antwerp  by 
the  emperor's  attorney  when  he  was  captured.  *  *  * 
And  among  some  English  dust-covered  collection  may  still 
be  found  such  of  his  manuscripts  as,  passing  into  the 
hands  of  his  Timothy — John  Rogers — came  over  into 
England.  Enough  is  already  ascertained  to  stimulate  in 
us  an  unceasing  search  for  any  trace  of  him  and  an  in- 
creasing study  of  his  works ;  and  what  we  already  know  of 
his  nature  and  character,  of  his  work  and  purpose,  fully 
justifies  our  for  ever  revering  him  as  the  great  apostle  of 
our  early  Reformation."  "  First  Printed  Eng.  N.  T.  Far 
Simile— Introd.  69,  70. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  85 

unnoticed  inspirations  of  a  great  movement, 
and,  by  it,  one  of  the  fathers  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. In  looking  back  we  see  him  standing  all 
alone  in  his  hard  and  dark  and  eventful  life. 
"Wycliffe  had  his  Lollards,  Luther  his  Lutherans, 
Calvin  his  Calvinists,  but  Tyndale  is  the  father 
and  the  name  of  no  sect.  He  is  the  father 
of  the  English  Bible,  and  his  name  will  remain 
when  all  sects  and  systems  shall  have  passed 
away. 

The  first  remarkable  element  of     Excellencies 

and  peculiarities 

his  version  was  its  limpid  outflow  of  his  version. 
from  the  original.  It  rendered  what  it  found 
there  with  no  intermixture  of  personal  ideas 
or  church  prejudices.  At  least  this  was  its 
pure  intent.  And  in  this  was  the  very  pecu- 
liarity which  precipitated  the  wrath  of  Church 
and  state  upon  him.  He  rendered  "  congrega- 
tion," not  "church;"  "elder,"  not  "priest;" 
" acknowledge,"  not  "confess;"  "repentance," 
not  "  penance ;"  "  favor,"  not  "  grace ;"  "  love," 
not  "  charity."  These  latter  technical  words, 
so  deeply  imbedded  in  the  Roman  concrete, 


86  01' It  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

were  not  found  in  his  New  Testament,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  the  former  words,  so  fresh  on  the 
lips,  so  near  the  heart  of  everyday  human  life. 
"  These  simple  and  faithful  renderings,"  ,*ay* 
Anderson,  "  once  read  in  their  connection, 
shook  to  its  very  foundations  that  fabric  which 
the  Chancellor  (More)  had  strained  all  his 
powers  to  defend;"*  for  it  was  with  Sir 
Thomas  More,  the  champion  of  Romanism, 
that  Tyndale  had  his  chief  combat  in  the  war 
of  controversy  and  of  pamphlets.  As  a  purely 
its  indmdu-  individual  production,  impressed 

ality  and  origi- 
nality, with  the  strong  features  of  a  nature 

which  had  grown  up  intellectually  and  spiritu- 
ally almost  alone,  and  yet  which  possessed  the 
elements  of  a  singular  earnestness,  simplicity, 
and  purity,  as  marking  the  breaking  away  of  a 
distinctly  independent  mind,  and  its  assertion 
of  the  truth  in  perfect  insulation  from  the  un- 
scriptural  Church,  the  Version  of  Tyndale  takes 
its  immovable  place  in  the  history  of  the  Re- 
formation, and  as  the  controlling  influence  in 

*  Annals  i.  281. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  87 

all  future  Versions.  "  From  first  to  last,"  says 
Westcott,  "  his  style  and  his  interpretation  are 
his  own,  and  in  the  originality  of  Tyndale  is 
included  in  a  large  measure  the  originality  of 
our  English  version."*"  Notwithstanding," 
says  Anderson,  "  all  the  confessed  improve- 
ments made  in  our  translation  of  its  influence 

on  the  present 

the  Bible,  large  portions  in  almost  version, 
every  chapter  remain  verbally  the  same  as  he 
first  gave  them  to  his  country  ."f  "  He  estab- 
lished," says  Westcott  again,  "  a  standard  of 
Biblical  translation  which  others  followed. 
*  *  *  It  is  even  of  less  moment  that  by  far 
the  greater  part  of  his  translation  remains 
intact  in  our  present  Bibles,  than  that  his 
spirit  animates  the  whole.  He  toiled  faith- 
fully himself,  and  where  he  failed,  he  left  to 
those  who  should  come  after  the  secret  of 
success.  The  achievement  was  not  for  one 
but  for  many ;  but  he  fixed  the  type  according 
to  which  the  later  laborers  worked.  His  influ- 

*  Eng.  Bib.  210. 
f  Annals  i.  245. 


88  OUR  ESGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

ence  decided  that  our  Bible  should  be  popular 
and  not  literary,  speaking  in  a  simple  dialect, 
and  that  so  by  its  simplicity  it  should  be 
endowed  with  permanence.  He  felt  by  a  happy 
instinct  the  potential  affinity  between  Hebrew 
and  English  idioms,  and  enriched  our  language 
and  thought  for  ever  with  the  characteristics 
of  the  Semitic  mind."* 

"  To  Tyndale,"  says  Plumptre,  "  belongs  the 
honor  of  having  given  the  first  example  of  a 
translation  based  on  true  principles,  and  the 
excellence  of  later  versions  has  been  almost  in 
exact  proportion  as  they  followed  his.  Believ- 
ing that  every  part  of  Scripture  had  one  sense 
and  one  only,  the  sense  in  the  mind  of  the 
writer,  he  made  it  his  work,  using  all  philolo- 
gical helps  that  were  accessible,  to  attain  that 
sense.  Believing  that  the  duty  of  a  translator 
was  to  place  his  readers  as  nearly  on  a  level  as 
possible  with  those  for  whom  the  books  were 
originally  written,  he  looked  on  all  the  later 
theological  associations  that  had  gathered 

*  Eng.  Bib.  211. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  89 

round  the  words  of  the  New  Testament  as 
hindrances  rather  than  helps,  and  sought,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  get  rid  of  them."  "  In  this 
as  in  other  things,  Tyndale  was  in  advance, 
not  only  of  his  own  age,  but  of  the  age  that 
followed  him."  "  All  the  exquisite  grace  and 
simplicity  which  have  endeared  the  Authorized 
Version  to  men  of  most  opposite  tempers  and 
contrasted  opinions,  is  due  mainly  to  his  clear- 
sighted truthfulness."  * 

The  historian  Froude  gives  equally  forcible 
testimony  to  his  version.  "The  peculiar 
genius,"  he  says,  "  if  such  a  word  may  be  per- 
mitted, which  breathes  through  it;  the  min- 
gled tenderness  and  majesty;  the  Saxon  sim- 
plicity, the  preternatural  grandeur,  unequalled, 
unapproached,  in  the  attempted  improvements 
of  modern  scholars — all  are  here,  and  bear 
the  impress  of  one  man,  and  that  man  William 

Tyndale."t 

And  finally,  listen  to  Bishop  Ellicott,  who 

*  Smith's  Bib.  Diet.  iii.  1669. 
f  Hist.  Eng.  iii.  84. 


00          OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

to-day  is  the  leading  spirit  in  the  new  work  of 
revision.  Speaking  of  Tyndale's  determination 
to  make  it  in  the  simple  and  homely  language 
of  the  people,  he  says :  "  It  is  to  this  steady 
aim  and  purpose  that  the  special  and  striking 
idiomatic  excellence  of  the  Authorized  Version 
is  pre-eminently  due.  To  this  deep  resolve  we 
owe  it  that  our  own  English  version  is  now 
what  we  feel  it  to  be, — a  Version  speaking  to 
heart  and  soul,  and  appealing  to  our  deepest 
religious  sensibilities  with  that  mingled  sim- 
plicity, tenderness,  and  grandeur,  that  make  us 
often  half  doubt,  as  we  listen,  whether  Apos- 
tles and  Evangelists  are  not  still  exercising 
their  Pentecostal  gift,  and  themselves  speaking 
to  us  in  the  very  tongue  wherein  we  were 
born.  Verily  we  may  bless  and  praise  God 
that  Tyndale  was  moved  to  form  this  design, 
and  that  he  was  permitted  faithfully  to  adhere 
to  it,  for,  beyond  doubt,  it  is  to  that  popular 
element  in  his  Version  not  only  that  we  owe 
nearly  all  that  is  best  in  our  present  English 
Testament,  but  that  there  remains  to  this  very 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  91 

hour,  in  the  heart  of  all  earnest  English 
people,  an  absolute  intolerance  of  any  changes 
in  the  words  or  phraseology  that  would  tend 
to  obscure  this  special,  and,  we  may  justly  say, 
this  providential  characteristic.  Tyndale  not 
only  furnished  the  type  of  all  succeeding  ver- 
sions, but  bequeathed  principles  which  will 
exercise  a  preservative  influence  over  the  Ver- 
sion of  the  English  Bible,  through  every 
change  or  revision  that  may  await  it,  until 
Scriptural  revision  shall  be  no  longer  needed 
and  change  shall  be  no  more."* 

Aside  from  the  natural  aptitude     The  favorable 

condition  of  the 

which  Tyndale   had  for  his  work,  English  lan- 
guage when  it 

there  was  one  circumstance  which  was  executed. 
constituted  for  him  an  extraordinary  opportu- 
nity. It  enabled  him  to  be,  in  his  peculiar 
field,  what  we  find  the  great  poets  to  have  been 
in  theirs.  The  province  opened  by  him  was  a 
fresh  discovery,  and  he  had  the  genius  to  ex- 
haust very  nearly  all  its  treasures.  His  suc- 
cessors were  only  gleaners.  This  favorable 

*  Revision  of  Eng  New  Testament  60. 


92  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

circumstance  was  the  condition  of  the  English 
language  at  the  time  in  which  he  lived.  It 
was  then  going  through  that  long  process  of 
its  formation,  which  we  saw  beginning  in  Wyc- 
liffe's  day,  in  an  emergence  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  and  transition,  through  the  Latin  and 
Norman-French,  and  which  ended  in  its  becom- 
ing a  fixed  national  tongue.  It  was  in  its  most 
plastic  state,  ready  for  any  rich  form  into 
which  both  association  and  genius  might  mould 
it.  In  addition  to  this,  both  of  the  original 
languages  of  the  Bible  were  found  to  be  in 
most  "  potential  affinity"  with  it.  Tyndale 
himself  discovered  this,  and  states  the  fact  in 
opposition  to  the  common  preference  at  that 
time  for  the  Vulgate  translation  of  both  Testa- 
ments. "  The  Greek  tongue,"  he  says,  "  agreeth 
more  with  the  English  than  the  Latin."* 
"And  the  properties  of  the  Hebrew  tongue 
agree  a  thousand  times  more  with  the  English 
than  the  Latin.  The  manner  of  speaking  is 
in  both  one,  so  that  in  a  thousand  places 

*  Westcott.     Eng.  Bib.  174. 


THE  AGE  OF  PRINTING.  93 

thou  needest  not  but  to  translate  it  into 
English  word  for  word."*  The  forming  lan- 
guage yielded  to  the  strong  peculiarities 
of  the  others.  Like  a  plastic  substance, 
it  took,  under  the  skilful  hands  of  Tyndale, 
the  stamp  and  impress  of  both  these  dies, 
the  Hebrew,  and  the  Hellenistic  Greek.  It 
yielded  to  the  idiom  of  either,  again  and  again 
at  will,  till  the  style  assumed  often  a  foreign 
and  oriental  character ;  and  when  the  people 
began  to  read  and  quote  their  Bible,  its  pecu- 
liar turns  of  expression  wrought  themselves 
insensibly  into  the  forms  of  their  daily  speech, 
and  thus  the  plain,  insular  language  of  Eng- 
land, already  composite,  and  disposed  to  be 
more  so,  became  gradually  enriched  with  the 
native  force  and  beauty  of  the  original  tongues 
of  the  Scriptures.  We  ourselves  are  now  daily 
employing  unconsciously  the  idiom  of  both 
the  earlier  and  the  later  Hebrews,  and  all 
because  our  language  at  this  period  of  Tyndale 
melted  so  easily  into  both  of  the  ancient  and 

*  Pluuiptre.     Smith's  Bib.  Diet.  iii.  1669. 

7 


94  OUR  EXGLISH  BIBLE  AXD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

bygone  languages  of  the  Bible.  When  a  man 
of  genius  and  spiritual  intuition  had  such  an 
untried  opportunity  as  this,  what  wonder  is  it 
that  the  product  of  his  labor  became  of  everlast- 
ing permanence ;  and  what  wonder,  too,  that  he 
succeeded  in  occupying  the  field  so  entirely  as 
to  anticipate  the  future,  and  leave  the  work 
of  improving  upon  him  the  only  office  of  his 
successors  ? 
/  ,rrKion ,-  We  owe  still  one  other  matter  of 

should  be  a  di- 

rect, impersonal    inestimable  value  to  the  example  of 

transfer  from  tho 

original.  Tyndale :     namely,     the    principle 

that  a  version  of  the  Bible  should  be  perfectly 
colorless,  tinctured  with  no  thought  which  may 
previously  have  had  possession  of  the  translator. 
Even  if  it  should  come  into  being  amid  the  rich 
embosoming  of  the  church,  and  within  the 
very  walls  of  her  doctrines,  still  it  must  take 
no  ecclesiastical,  traditional,  or  conventional 
form  whatever.  That  which  it  is  in  the  original 
it  must  be  in  the  translation ;  and  this,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  the  marked  element  which  dis- 
tinguished the  Version  of  Tyndale,  so  far  as  he 


THE  AGE  OF  PRIXT1XG.  95 

was  able  to  control  it — the  element  which,  at 
the  time,  raised  against  his  work  the  opposition 
of  the  church,  but  which  hereafter  it  will  be 
the  very  life  and  protection  of  the  church  to 
reproduce.  Our  Bible,  through  the  influence 
of  its  subsequent  revisions,  cannot  be  said  to 
be  entirely  free  of  doctrinal  prepossessions.  It 
took  somewhat  the  color  of  the  times  through 
which  it  passed,  but  the  stern,  earnest  finger 
of  Tyndale  still  points  onward  to  a  day  when 
the  effulgence  of  the  originals  shall  shine  upon 
mankind,  not  through  many-colored  lights  as 
of  cathedral  windows,  to  keep  us  all  in  a 
"  dim  religious  light,"  but  as  the  sun  when 
it  ^hineth  on  the  face  of  nature — in  their 
purity  and  in  their  strength. 

NOTE. — Mr.  Blunt,  in  his  "  Plain  Account  of  the  Eng- 
lish Bible,"  written  and  published  since  the  late  movement 
towards  revision,  takes  altogether  different  ground  from  the 
scholars  quoted  in  this  chapter,  and,  evidently  moved  by 
doctrinal  prejudice,  like  the  contemporary  ecclesiastics  of 
Tyii''  -  him  no  place  and  no  credit  in  the  formation 

of  the  English  Bible.     It  is  a  melancholy  instance  of  how 


96  OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

a  mind  can  bring  itself  to  ignore  palpable  facts,  in  order  to 
make  room  for  its  own  prepossessions.  By  him  our  Version 
is  based  on  WycliflVs,  and  WyclifFe's  on  previous  Versions 
(though  renderings  from  the  Latin),  because  these  Versions 
took  the  simple  Saxon  forms  of  speech,  which  characterize 
our  present  Bible.  Tyndale  is  abused,  slandered,  and  dis- 
owned. Mr.  Blunt  was  born  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Eighth!  What  is  he  doing  on  earth  at  the  present  time  ? 
As  to  the  quality  of  his  judgment,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  in  a  late  statement  of  reasons  against  revision,  the 
final,  and  of  course  the  strongest  in  his  mind,  is  the  fact 
that  the  English  reading  public  have  a  "  vested  right" 
in  the  u  Authorized  Version"  as  so  much  property ;  the 
copies  in  circulation  would  be  rendered  valueless  by  the 
issue  of  another,  and  thus  injustice  would  be  done  to 
the  owners !  The  interests  of  truth,  the  full  revelation 
of  the  Word  of  God,  to  be  sacrificed  to  such  a  considera- 
tion as  this ! 


III. 

THE  SIX  LINEAL  DESCENDANTS  OF  TYN- 
DALE'S  PATRIARCH-VERSION. 

THE  BIBLES  OF  COVERDALE,  ROGERS,  CROMWELL,  CRAN- 
MER,  GENEVA,  AND  THE  BISHOPS. — THE  GREEK  TES- 
TAMENTS OF  STEPHENS  AND  BEZA. — THE  HEBREW 
TEXT. 

THE  BIBLE  OF  COVERDALE. 

A  S  we  have  seen,  Erasmus  laid  the     The  work  of 
foundation  of  the  English  New  T^iTincom- 
Testament  in  gathering  his  Greek  plet 
manuscripts  together,  and  publishing  the  first 
Greek  Text,  and  Tyndale  reared    the   super- 
structure, and  fixed  for  ever  its  style  and  arch- 
itecture.    But  the  latter  left,  as  we  have  also 
seen,  the   scaffolding   still   standing,  and   the 
building,  which  he  had  erected  in  such  magnifi- 
cent   masonry,    unfinished    and    rough-hewn, 

(97) 


98          OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

awaiting  the  finer  hands  of  the  carver  and  gilder 
before  all  its  glory  could  be  revealed.  And 
like  the  builders  of  a  great  cathedral,  whose 
work  still  lies  down  in  the  crypt  and  among  its 
supporting  archways,  which  make  the  security, 
and  in  the  solid  walls  of  the  building  above, 
which  mark  the  character  of  the  fabric,  both 
Erasmus  and  Tyndale  have  been  almost  for- 
gotten in  the  more  effective  labors  and  later 
ingenuity  of  their  successors. 

Many  years  after  the  illustrious  scholar  had 
passed  away,  and  his  equally  illustrious  co- 
laborer,  Cardinal  Ximenes,  other  workmen 
were  found  strengthening  the  foundations  and 
clearing  the  passages  down  amid  the  darkness 
of  a  long-dead  language.  Erasmus  and  Tyn- 
dale closed  their  labors  and  their  lives  almost 
together.  They  both  died  in  1536.  About  ten 
years  after,  in  1546,  another  workman  was 
prepared  to  exhibit  the  result  of  his  labors  in 
the  Greek  text. 
The  Greek  The  famous  Robert  Stephens,  a 

Text  of  Ste- 
phens, printer  of  Paris,    and  a   scholar  as 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYND ALE'S  VERSION.  99 

well,  issued  a  new  edition,  correcting  the  work  of 
Erasmus  by  manuscripts  taken  chiefly  from  the 
French  Eoyal  Library.*  But  the  doctors  of  the 
Sorbonne  persecuted  him,  and,  after  issuing  two 
more  editions,  he  went  to  Geneva  and  issued 
another,  which  is  especially  notable  for  a  pecu- 
liarity with  which  every  one  is  familiar.  It 
was  the  first  New  Testament  divided  up  into 
verses.  This  was  Stephens's  own  vork,  and 
had  been  done  by  him  while  riding  on  his  mule 
from  Paris  to  Lyons,  in  order,  it  is  said,  to  faci- 
litate the  references  of  a  Concordance  he  was 
preparing.  These  divisions,  however,  were  in- 
dicated by  figures  on  the  margin.  He  did  not 
venture  to  break  up  the  paragraphs  into  the 
apothegmic  little  morsels  which  disfigure  our 
Bibles  to-day.  This  was  done  in  one  of  the 
Versions  which  afterward  appeared. 

Ten  or  fifteen  years  after  Ste-     The  Greek  text 
phens  had  closed  his  labors  Theo- 
dore  Beza   appeared  down  in  the  crypt,  and 

*  Tregelles.  History  of  the  Greek  Text  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, 31. 


100        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

worked  there  thirty-three  years — 1565-98 — 
issuing  five  editions  of  his  text,  correcting  the 
work  of  Stephens  by  the  aid  of  still  more  an- 
cient and  valuable  manuscripts.  And  he  also, 
like  Erasmus,  accompanied  it  by  a  Latin  trans- 
lation of  his  own,  intended  to  exhibit  the  inac- 
curacy of  the  Vulgate.  His  Text  and  his  ver- 
sion both  became  favorites  with  the  Protest- 
ants. But  the  Romanists,  still  unlearned  in 
the  field  of  Greek  textual  criticism,  and  as 
prejudiced  as  ever,  roundly  abused  this  good 
workman  also. 

The  successors  While  these  scholars,  successors  of 
Erasmus,  were  thus  busy  below  upon 
the  foundations,  and  completing  the  vaulted 
archways  which  should  securely  sustain  the 
pavement  above,  the  successors  of  Tyndale  also 
were  at  work  upon  the  superstructure  which  he 
had  left  unfinished.  They  availed  themselves 
of  his  plan  and  his  material,  and  here  and 
there  improved,  and  here  and  there,  but  only 
in  slight  instances,  comparatively,  deformed  his 
building.  But  it  was  they  who,  after  many 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.  101 

changes,  were  at  last  to  take  down  the  scaffold- 
ing that  had  stood  about  it  through  three  gene- 
rations, and  reveal  to  the  world  the  almost 
"  perfect  beauty"  which  belongs  to  our  present 
Bible. 
In  the  reader's  view  of  this  edifice,  Type's  work 

7    on  the  Old  Testa- 

during  this  opening  era  of  its  erec-  ment- 
tion,  he  must  not  forget  to  notice  the  adjoining 
fabric  of  the  Old  Testament,  rising  also  from 
its  still  older  foundation,  the  published  Hebrew 
Text,  but  as  yet  built  not  more  than  a  single 
story  above  the  ground :  the  five  chambers  of 
the  Pentateuch  complete,  and  the  Book  of 
Jonah  standing  like  a  lone  column,  the  last 
printed  work  of  Tyndale's  hands. 

We  return  now  to  the   moment     cranmer'sfiwt 

attempt  to  issue 

when    these    after-builders   entered  the  English 

Bille. 

upon  his  labors,  and  began  anew  upon 
the  structure  which  he  had  erected.  In  1534 
Convocation,  with  archbishop  Cranmer  at  its 
head,  petitioned  king  Henry  to  "graciously 
indulge  unto  his  subjects  of  the  laity  the  read- 
ing of  the  Bible  in  the  English  tongue — that 


102        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AXD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

a  new  translation  might  be  forthwith  made  for 
that  end  and  purpose."  At  this  time  twenty 
editions  of  Tyndale's  New  Testament  were  in 
England,  circulating  secretly  under  a  ban,  and 
others,  more  recently  published,  were  pouring 
in.  It  will  be  noticed  how  this  petition  re- 
cognised its  existence  in  this  prayer  for  a 
"  new  translation."  We  have  seen  the  fate  of 
Cranmer's  attempt,  after  permission  had  been 
obtained,  to  get  the  proposed  Version  from  the 
bishops.  They  could  not  agree  upon  a  Ver- 
sion clear  of  church  trammels  and  technical 
words.  Their  fingers  were  tied,  as  their 
minds  were  tinged,  by  theological  preposses- 
sions. Each  one  wore  the  Latin  Vulgate  as  a 
pair  of  spectacles  wherewith  to  read  the  Greek. 
And  so  Cranmer,  after  receiving  their  pre- 
judiced and  variant  suggestions,  gave  up  the 
task  as  something  which  could  not  be  had 
from  that  quarter  "  till,"  to  use  his  own  words, 
"the  day  after  doomsday." 
cromweii's  But  Thomas  Cromwell,  then 

first  attempt.  ..  n    i    • 

rapidly  rising  to  the  height  of  his 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYND ALE'S  VERSION.          103 

power  and  influence,  the  great  manager  of  the 
English  Reformation  in(  its  earlier  stages, 
wisely  and  quickly  seized  the  opportunity 
which  was  yet  open,  of  advancing  the  progress 
of  English  independence  of  the  Papal  power. 
It  was  desirable,  if  the  work  of 

Coverdale. 

translating  should  fall  again  into 
the  hands  of  an  individual,  in  default  of  any 
present  ability  in  the  church  authorities'  to 
agree  upon  an  English  Version,  that  it  should 
come  from  one  who,  unlike  Tyndale,  had  not 
made  himself  obnoxious  in  any  way  to  them, 
especially  to  the  king,  and  who  was  of  a 
nature  compliant  enough  to  accommodate  his 
translation  temporarily  to  the  situation. 
Whether  or  not  the  peculiar  gifts  required, 
were  actually  discovered  and  noticed  in  one 
person,  and  led  to  his  connection  with  the 
undertaking,  or  were  afterward  developed  by 
himself,  certainly  the  successor  of  Tyndale  was 
astonishingly  well  fitted  to  meet  the  necessity 
as  it  stood.  There  is  a  mystery  in  his  move- 
ments which  may  have  been  accidental,  but 


104        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

which  probably  was  designed,  in  the  conniving 
action  of  Cromwell  and  others.  All  we  know 
is  that  Miles  Coverdale,  at  one  time  a  priest 
and  an  Augustine  friar,  but  early  in  sympathy 
with  the  Reformation,  and,  about  the  time  of 
Tyndale's  first  issue,  intimately  connected  with 
Cromwell  and  More,  was  the  singularly  quali- 
fied man  by  whom  the  great  work  was  under- 
taken at  this  critical  moment.  By  taste, 
talent  and  preference  a  preacher,  yet  the  finger 
of  Providence,  either  in  the  suggestion  of  Crom- 
well or  the  monitions  of  his  own  heart,  proba- 
bly both,  seemed  to  point  to  this  arduous 
and  unwonted  task.  Four  or  five  years 
before  this,  he  had  met  Tyndale  at  Ham- 
burg, and  some  say  he  had  a  hand  in  assist- 
ing the  pioneer.  Doubtless  he  there  imbibed 
an  intense  interest  in  the  translation  then 
proceeding.  It  is  very  likely  when  the 
change  came  over  the  Church  of  England, 
that  he '  understood  the  situation,  and  that 
Cromwell  also  understood  him.  At  any  rate 
he  is  found,  just  at  this  period,  self-exiled  on 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.          105 

the  continent,  no  one  knows  where,  engaged 
with  tremendous  energy  on  the  work  of  pre- 
paring not  only  another  New  Testament,  but 
the  whole  Bible  for  the  English  public.  The 
tireless  industry  with  which  he  must  have 
labored  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  he  com- 
pleted the  stupendous  work  and  had  it  printed 
in  eleven  months ! 
He  reproduced  all  Tyndale's  New  coverdaie 

issues  the  whole 

Testament,  and  the  portions  of  the  B">ie. 
Old  Testament  already  executed,  revising  them 
with  a  rich  infusion  of  his  own  paraphrastic 
style,  (but  sometimes  rendering  very  felici- 
tously), and  then  added  the  remainder  in  a 
very  free  version.  Whether  it  was  part  of  his 
accommodating  tact,  or  whether  it  was  the 
simple  fact,  he  did  not  pretend  to  have  produced 
his  Version  from  the  originals  but,  by  a  kind  of 
distillation,  to  have  gathered  and  concentrated 
the  riches  of  five  other  translations  into  his 
own.  "  I  have,"  he  says  in  his  dedication, 
"  purely  and  faithfully  translated  this  out  of 
five  sundry  interpreters."  Two  of  these  were 


106         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

Latin  Versions,  two  German,  and  the  other 
was  very  probably  Tyndale's.  His  knowledge 
of  Hebrew  and  Greek  enabled  him  to  discrimi- 
nate in  a  selection  of  renderings,  and  his  com- 
mand of  English  gave  him  occasionally  most 
happy  turns  of  expression.  Many  of  these 
subtle  changes  remain  in  our  present  transla- 
tion, adding  much  to  its  force  and  beauty. 
His  Version  was  thus  a  composite  piece  of 
architecture,  introduced  to  complete  the  edifice 
of  the  Bible,  and  was  made  to  unite  and  blend 
itself  with  the  grand  but  simple  structure  of 
Tyndale. 
characteristics  But  the  work  of  Coverdale,  when 

of  his  Version.         n     •    i        -i  -i          ITIII  i  t 

finished  and  published,  developed  an 
individual  character  of  its  own.  It  was  too 
free  and  paraphrastic  for  accuracy,  but  was, 
nevertheless,  smooth,  rich,  and  rhythmical. 
"Though  he  is  not  original,"  says  Westcott,* 
"  yet  he  was  endowed  with  an  instinct  of  dis- 
crimination which  is  scarcely  less  precious 

*  Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  217. 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.  107 

than  originality,  and  a  delicacy  of  ear  which 
is  no  mean  qualification  for  a  popular  transla- 
tor." "  Our  admiration  for  the  solitary  mas- 
sive strength  of  the  one  (Tyndale)  must  not 
make  us  insensible  to  the  patient  labors  and 
tender  sympathy  of  the  other."  * 

The  Psalter  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
as  compared  with  the  more  literal  rendering  of 
the  Psalms  in  the  Authorized  Version  is  a 
very  fair  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  he 
executed  the  entire  Bible. 

His  contribution  to  our  present  Version  may 
be  summed  up,  first,  in  certain  peculiar  felici- 
ties of  expression,  and  next  in  the  general 
result  of  a  quickness  to  avail  himself  of  the 
suggestions  of  other  masters  of  the  original 
tongues. 

But,  in  another  point,  the  Version,  in  his 
hands,  took  a  step  backward  into  the  old 
ecclesiastical  preoccupation,  and  many  of  the 
words  which  Tyndale  had  so  independently 

*  Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  70. 


108        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

rendered,  were  changed  in  order  to  better  suit 
the  time. 
utility  of  a          The    distinguishing    element   of 

diversity  of 

translations.  strength  B&Q.  wisdom  in  Coverdale 
was  his  belief  in  a  diversity  of  translations,  in 
the  consultation  of  many  minds,  and  in  the 
greater  wealth  that  could  be  given  to  a  Ver- 
sion which  combined  the  impressions  received 
by  different  scholars  from  the  self-same  origi- 
nal passage ;  variations  not  in  essence,  but 
in  light  and  color.  "One  translation,"  he 
says,  "  declareth,  and  openeth,  and  illustrateth 
another,  and  in  many  places  one  is  a  plain 
commentary  unto  another."  It  is  this  prin- 
ciple which  ought  to  enter  into  any  other 
Version  and  revision,  and  bring  about  the 
introduction  of  a  marginal  variorum  of  ren- 
derings, so  that  the  reader  may  learn  to 
gather  the  sense  with  the  mind  as  well  as  with 
the  eye,  and  to  catch  the  living  spirit  more 
than  to  weigh  the  inadequate  letter  of  any 
secondary  form  in  which  God's  word  may  come 
to  him.  This  principle  is  already  realized 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYN DALE'S  VERSION.          109 

somewhat,  but  not  by  any  means  enough,  in 
the  marginal  renderings  inserted  in  our  present 
Bible. 

Such  is  all  we  owe  to  Coverdale.  His  Ver- 
sion had  its  own  great  use,  and  it  was  only 
such  a  one,  pretending  so  little  to  be  an  origi- 
nal production,  and  accommodating  itself  so 
skilfully  to  the  temper  of  the  time,  that  could 
have  hoped  to  get  the  king's  approval,  and 
attain  to  an  open  circulation  among  the  people. 

When  it  was  published  in  1535, —     corerdaie's 

iii       Bible  licensed  by 

less  than  ten  years  after  Tyndale  s  the  king, 
first  issue, — with  a  dedicatory  letter  to  the 
king,  it  was  allowed  by  the  authorities  to  go 
where  it  would,  and,  in  about  two  years, 
another  edition  appeared  with  "the  king's 
most  gracious  license."  So  at  last  the  Scrip- 
tures were  no  longer  secretly  published  and 
read  in  England. 

Thus  far  we  have  the  whole  Bible     Tyudaieand 

Coverdale  com- 

produced,  and  with  such  a  curious  pared, 
paternity :   by  two  men  so  picturesquely  oppo- 
site and  yet  complemental  to  each  other,  and 
both  so  fitted  to  their  opportunity :  the  strong, 
8 


110         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AXD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

the  positive,  the  uncompromising,  the  original 
Tyndale :  the  amiable,  the  negative,  the  com- 
plying, the  skilful  Coverdale :  the  one  intro- 
ducing the  true  type  of  what  a  version  should 
be,  and  boldly  presenting  it  in  advance  of  his 
time :  the  other  clothing  it  with  an  illusive 
vesture,  which  softened  its  outlines  and 
brought  it  without  suspicion  into  the  precincts 
of  the  court  and  the  church.  The  one  was 
the  sun,  giving  a  positive  and  original  light; 
the  other,  the  moon  giving  the  lustre  of  the 
former,  but  in  a  diminished  radiance :  each 
rising  in  his  turn,  to  illumine  the  Scriptures 
in  order  that  the  people  might  read  the  Word 
of  God. 

Tyndale  died  at  the  stake,  a  martyr  to  the 
cause  of  the  Bible.  Coverdale  lived  to  see  it 
rise  from  the  ashes  of  that  martyrdom,  to  wit- 
ness its  eventful  progress,  to  follow,  and  i 
to  participate  in  its  future  history,  to  behold 
his  own  imperfect  work  superseded,  and  yet  to 
labor  with  splendid  energy  on  the  better  work 
that  was  to  come. 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.  Ill 

THE  BIBLE  OF  ROGERS. 

Two  years  after  Coverdale's  sue-     John  Rogers. 

.  .  His  Version  a  re- 

cessiul  and  unopposed  introduction  vision  of  Tyndaie 

n     i  i      i       -r>-i  i  i  TT         •  and  Coverdale. 

of  the  whole  Bible,  another  V ersion,  its  success. 
in  large  folio,  entered  England,  and  received  a 
greeting  as  strange  and  cordial  as  it  might  be 
supposed  to  have  been  unexpected.  The  after- 
ward famous  martyr,  John  Rogers,  then  an 
eminent  divine,  and  a  chaplain  to  an  English 
mercantile  society  at  Antwerp,  a  companion  of 
Tyndaie,  and  well  known  to  be  his  friend  and 
co-laborer,  printed  abroad  and  sent  over  to  Eng- 
land a  Bible,  which  was  made  up  of  Tyndale's 
Version  of  the  New  Testament,  and  of  the 
already  mentioned  portions  of  the  Old,  as  it 
was  before  Coverdale's  revision,  and  also  of 
Coverdale's  individual  Version  of  the  re- 
mainder.* The  characteristic  contributions  of 

*  This  Bible  was  known  at  the  time,  as  "  Matthews's 
Bible,1'  from  the  name  of  Thomas  Matthews  having  been 
allowed  to  appear  conspicuously  in  it.  The  name  was 
either  a  pseudonym  for  Rogers  or  represented  the  person 
who  bore  the  cost  of  the  work. 


112         OUR  EXGLfSH  BIBLE  AXD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

the  two  were  united,  but  not,  as  before,  blended. 
Tyndale  stood  out  for  himself,  and  Coverdale 
for  himself.  Well  as  it  had  answered  its  tem- 
porary purpose,  Coverdale's  Bible  was  not  yet 
satisfactory  to  scholars,  however  popular  it 
may  have  been  with  the  people.  To  the  latter 
it  must  have  been  acceptable,  for  it  passed 
through  edition  after  edition  for  eighteen  years. 
But  a  scholar  like  archbishop  Cranmer  felt 
too  sensibly  its  lack  of  distinctness  and  close 
fidelity  to  the  original  not  to  be  anxious  that 
another  Version  should  be  forthcoming.  And 
so,  strangely  enough,  reappeared  this  New 
Testament  of  Tyndale,  with  hardly  an  altera- 
tion, with  even  his  formidable  initials  TV.  T. 
curiously  flourished  in  one  part,  and  with  even 
some  of  his  obnoxious  notes,  and  yet  by  the 
petition  of  Cranmer,  and  by  the  influence  of 
Cromwell  the  king's  express  license  was  pro- 
cured for  it. 

As  the  Bible  of  Coverdale  would  seem  to 
have  come  in  by  the  management  of  the  states- 
man Cromwell,  so  the  Bible  of  Rogers  appears 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYND  ALE'S  VERSION.  113 

to  have  entered  under  the  encouragement  of 
the  prelate  Crammer.  His  delight,  when  he 
received  the  first  copy,  was  unbounded,  and 
he  did  not  rest  till  he  had  secured,  through 
Cromwell,  the  full  authorization  of  the  king. 
"A  copy  was  ordered  by  royal  proclamation  to 
be  set  up  in  every  church.  This  was  therefore 
the  first  Authorized  Version."  * 
At  this  point,  the  building, 


•  m  i  > 

stripped,  as  to  Tyndales  part,  of  point  or  an  snb- 

n  i  •  ti  sequent  rev' 

Coverdales  alterations  and  decora-  «OM. 
tions,  and,  as  to  Coverdale's  part,  left  quite  as 
its  author  had  produced  it,  stands  up  a  singular 
composite  of  two  styles,  no  longer  intermingled, 
but  side  by  side,  —  and,  from  this  moment,  be- 
gins that  more  systematic  and  uninterrupted 
improvement  of  each,  which,  in  about  seventy- 
five  years,  was  to  result  in  our  present  Bible. 

*  Plumptre.     Smith's  Bib.  Diet.  iii.  1671. 


114       OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 
THE  BIBLE  OF  CROMWELL. 

cromweir8  Cromwell  was  now  vicegerent.* 
(1536.)  There  were  already  four 
Versions  in  the  field  :  Tyndale's,  Coverdale's, 
Rogers's,  and  one  by  Taverner  a  noted  lay 
scholar.  Many  thousands  of  these  were  in 
circulation,  but  still  none  were  entirely  satis- 
factory. Besides  internal  deficiencies,  they 
were  burdened  with  polemical  notes  or  com- 
mentaries, designed  to  throw  a  color  over  the 
Version  they  accompanied.  Cromwell  pro- 
jected a  new  Bible  on  a  magnificent  scale. 
This  time  it  should  not  creep  up  to  the  throne, 
but  should  come  from  the  throne.  There  was 
no  press  in  England  worthy  to  execute  it.  In 
Paris  there  were  more  excellent  materials  and 

*  "  Cromwell  had  been  the  secretary  of  Wolsey.  His 
advocacy  of  his  master,  in  the  hour  of  his  fall,  is  a  memo- 
rable instance  of  noble  fidelity, — his  love  of  the  Scriptures 
was  early  proved  by  his  learning  the  whole  of  Erasmus's 
Latin  Testament  by  heart, — and  his  preference  for  the 
reformed  religion  was  unquestionably  decided." — Enylish 
Hexapla  21. 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYN DALE'S  VERSION.  115 

more  skilful  workmen.  Francis  the  First,  in 
his  zeal  for  fine  printing,  had  founded  the 
Royal  Printing  House,  the  types  of  which 
have  been  celebrated  ever  since.  Moved  by 
Cromwell,  king  Henry  applied  to  king  Francis 
for  permission  to  have  the  forthcoming  Bible 
printed  at  this  Royal  Press  in  the  University 
of  Paris,  which  was  granted.  Now  CoTerdlli, 
again  appears  Coverdale,  called  upon 
a  second  time  by  Cromwell  to  engage  in  the 
great  undertaking,  and  this  time,  under  these 
better  auspices,  to  issue  a  new  Version  on  the 
basis  of  Rogers's,  and  of  course  to  supersede 
his  own,  then  quite  as  popular  as  any  other. 
It  was  characteristic  of  the  man  to  forget  him- 
self in  the  great  cause,  and  he  accordingly 
departed  for  Paris,  taking  with  him  Grafton,  a 
printer  of  London,  who  had  already  made 
great  efforts  to  secure  the  exclusive  royal  right 
to  publish  Rogers's  Bible,  but  without  success. 
Coverdale  and  Grafton,  reviser  R0n,anist«m 

,  -,  ,  .  Paris  interrupt 

and  printer,  had  got  well  on  with  the  work. 
their   work,    when    Roman    Catholic  jealousy 


116       OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

overtook  them.  The  inquisitor-general  of 
France  ordered  the  presses  to  stop,  and  the 
sheets  to  be  seized.  The  Englishmen  had  to 
flee,  but  they  had  already  taken  the  precaution 
to  remove  the  larger  part  of  what  they  had 
done  to  England.  Not  long  after  they  returned 
and  succeeded  in  conveying  presses,  type,  and 
even  workmen  to  London,  and  four  great  dry 
vats  full  of  sheets,  which  had  been  condemned 
to  be  burned,  but  which  had  instead  been  sold 
as  waste  paper.  Thus,  what  at  first  appeared  to 
be  a  great  misfortune  turned  out  to  be  a  great 
benefit;  for,  by  this  importation  of  material 
and  skill,  a  new  impetus  was  given  to  the  art 
of  printing  in  England,  and  the  Bible  could 
thenceforth  be  altogether  a  home  production. 
The  Great  Cromwell's  Bible  was  finished  and 

published  in  1539.  It  appeared  in  a 
large  and  mighty  folio,  and  was  distinguished 
by  the  name  of  "  The  Great  Bible."  A  signi- 
ficant cut  appeared  on  the  title-page,  designed 
by  Holbein,  representing  the  king  on  his 
throne,  with  a  group  of  ecclesiastics  on  the 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TTND ALE'S  VERSION.         117 

right  hand,  and  a  group  of  nobles  on  the  left, 
to  each  of  which  the  king  is  handing  a  volume 
labelled  in  Latin  "  The  Word  of  God."  Below 
the  ecclesiastics  stands  archbishop  Cranmer, 
and  below  the  nobles  vicegerent  Cromwell,  both 
also  engaged  in  distributing  the  Holy  Bible. 
This  Bible  went  to  the  people  without  note  or 
comment ;  and  so  far  it  was  the  sole  enterprise 
of  Cromwell. 

THE  BIBLE  OF  CRANMER. 

The  next  year,  1540,  Cranmer 
himself  undertook  the  work,  and 
issued  under  his  own  name,  as  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  a  revision  of  Cromwell's  Bible,  in 
which  there  were  so  many  changes  that  the 
issue  merits  a  distinct  place  in  the  chain  of 
Versions.*  It  was  published,  like  its  predeces- 
sor, in  stupendous  folio,  under  the  same  skilled 
direction,  and  from  the  types  which  had  been 
brought  from  Paris.  In  other  superficial  re- 
spects, also,  it  resembled  its  predecessor,  and  was 

*  English  Hexapla,  29. 


Cranmer's  re- 
Tision  of  it. 


118        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

also  known  as  "  The  Great  Bible."  One  marked 
feature,  however,  distinguished  it :  an  elaborate 
Preface,  foreshadowing  the  true  ideal  of  a  ver- 
sion, written  by  the  archbishop.  There  is  now 
in  the  British  Museum  "  a  splendid  copy  of  it, 
on  vellum,  with  the  cuts  and  blooming  letters 
curiously  illuminated."  This  was  the  gift  of 
Cranmer  to  his  royal  master. 

its  use  en-  Simultaneously  with  the  appear- 

ing. Thepopu-  ance  of  the  Great  Bible  a  royal  de- 

lar  delight.  ... 

cree  enjoining  its  use  was  issued, 
which  was  ordered  "  to  be  set  up  upon  every 
church  door,"  and  given  to  the  clergy  to  read 
to  their  congregations.  There  was  not  a  little 
feeling  against  this  act  of  the  king  among  many 
of  these  ecclesiastics,  and  not  a  few  endeavors 
to  make  it  of  none  effect,  but  with  no  success. 
The  people  were  not  slow  in  seizing  their  advan- 
tage and  manifesting  their  delight.  Six  copies 
of  the  Great  Bible  had  been  set  up  in  St.  Paul's, 
chained  to  as  many  desks,  for  public  reading. 
Crowds  gathered  round  each,  listening  eagerly 
to  the  loud  tones  of  some  one  able  to  read  in  a 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYN DALE'S  VERSION.          119 

sufficiently  clear  voice  to  be  heard  by  all.  An 
old  author  gives  us  a  graphic  picture  of  the 
public  enthusiasm  at  this  time.  "  It  was  won- 
derful to  see,"  he  says,  "  with  what  joy  this 
book  of  God  was  received  not  only  among  the 
learneder  sort  and  those  that  were  noted  for 
lovers  of  the  Reformation,  but  generally  all 
England  over  among  all  the  vulgar  and  com- 
mon people;  and  with  what  greediness  God's 
Word  was  read,  and  what  resort  to  places  where 
the  reading  of  it  was.  Everybody  that  could 
bought  the  book,  or  busily  read  it,  or  got  others 
to  read  it  to  them  if  they  could  not  themselves, 
and  divers  more  elderly  people  learned  to  read 
on  purpose.  And  even  little  boys  flocked 
among  the  rest  to  hear  portions  of  the  Holy 
Scripture  read."* 

St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  as  may  be     SccnesinSt. 
imagined,  beheld  many  a  noisy  scene 
about  this  time.     Crowds  of  people  gathered 
round  its  six  desk-chained  Bibles  to  listen  to 
those  among  them  who  were  educated  enough 

*  Strype,  in  Westcott's  Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  107. 


120         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

to  read  the  black-letter  text,  and  neither  the 
readers  nor  the  hearers  seem  to  have  had  much 
regard  for  the  regular  uses  of  the  place  in  their 
eagerness  to  read  and  to  hear  the  Word  of 
God  for  themselves.  It  mattered  not  at 
what  hour  it  was, — the  hour  of  prayer,  or 
the  hour  of  high  mass, — they  flocked  round 
their  Bibles,  and  the  loud  voices  of  their  lay 
readers,  with  their  own  earnest  comments, 
sometimes  drowned  the  voices  of  the  priests 
officiating  before  the  altar.  So,  under  the  very 
roof  of  the  cathedral,  the  revolutionary  uproar 
of  the  people  crowding  to  the  fresh  fountains  of 
living  water,  and  the  choral  tones  of  a  service 
still  conducted  in  Latin,  and  therefore  appear- 
ing like  buckets  for  ever  ascending  but  bring- 
ing nothing  up,  came  into  discordant  conflict, 
and  miniatured  the  general  antagonism  of  the 
time.  The  church  and  the  people  were  not  yet 
in  full  sympathy.  A  wilful,  fickle  monarch, 
full  of  royal  humors,  not  protestant  principles, 
at  heart  a  catholic,  only  in  policy  no  papist, 
had  granted  this  inconsistent  liberty  to  his  sub- 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.  121 

jects  ;  and  the  church,  also  divided  as  to  its 
own  counsels,  in  one  part  of  it  stood  in  oppo- 
sition, resistance,  and  complaint,  and  in  the 
other  part  of  it  tried  to  accommodate  itself  to 
the  situation,  to  meet  the  people  half  way  in 
their  newly  found  freedom,  and  to  gather  them 
once  more  into  the  fold  of  the  primitive  church  — 
the  church  as  it  was,  before  the  Romish  develop- 
ment began  to  turn  what  was  intended  to  be  a 
refuge  of  safety  into  a  house  of  bondage. 

Cromwell  and  Cranmer  had  this  latter  work 
in  hand.  But  the  time  drew  near  when  the 
one  was  to  be  broken  before  the  royal  will,  and 
the  other  had  to  bend.  Cromwell  perished 
at  the  block  ;  and,  when  the  Bible  was  to  be 
printed  again,  his  coat-of-arms  ignomiuiously 
disappeared  from  the  title-page,  and  the  names 
of  Bishops  Tunstal  and  Heath,  his  opponents, 
appeared  with  that  of  Cranmer,  to  give  credit 
to  the  edition. 

Thus  it  happened,  in  less  than 


triumph  of 

twenty  years  from  the  day  in  which  Tyndaie. 
the  poor  scholar  Tyndale  applied  ^at  the  palace 


1-2-2         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

of  Tunstal  for  his  patronage  in  translating  the 
Scriptures,  and  was  coldly  dismissed ;  in  less 
than  fifteen  years  from  the  days  in  which  "  my 
lord  of  London"  was  collecting,  purchasing,  and 
burning  the  Testaments  of  Tyndale ;  Tunstal 
is  found  putting  his  name  on  the  title-page  of 
what  was  still  substantially  that  martyr's  work. 
A  later  edition  still  exhibits  Cranmer  bending, 
as  was  his  policy,  before  the  formidable  humors 
of  the  king,  and  in  his  Preface  taking  that 
neutral  tint  which  enabled  the  Great  Bible  "  to 
keep  its  ground  during  the  changing  moods  of 
Henry's  later  years." 

Edward  vi.  Parliament,  at  this  moment,  pro- 
tothcKUe  in™  scribed  Tyndale's  translation ;  and 
the  king  prohibited  all  other  editions 
and  forms  of  the  Bible,  Coverdale's  included, 
leaving  only  the  Great  Bible  unforbidden.  And 
even  the  reading  of  this  was  restricted  by  decrees 
to  certain  classes  of  the  people,  during  this 
strange  reaction  of  the  royal  mind.  In  the  midst 
of  it  all,  however,  Henry  died,  1547,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Edward  the  Sixth.  Then 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.          123 

the  tide  set  strongly  the  other  way,  and  the 
reforming  party  were  afloat  again.     It  is  said 
that  the  Great   Bible  was  even   used   at  his 
coronation.     A  chronicler  writes,  "  When  three 
swords  were  brought,  signs  of  his  being  king 
of  three  kingdoms,  he  said  there  was  one  yet 
wanting.     And  when  the   nobles   about   him 
asked  him  what  that  was,  he  answered,  '  Tlie 
Bille:     i  That  Book,'  added  he,  '  is  the  Sword 
of  the  Spirit,  and  to  be  preferred  before  these 
swords.'     And   when    the    pious    young   king 
hud  said  this,  and  some  other  like  words,  he 
commanded  the  Bible  with  the  greatest  rever- 
ence to  be  brought  and  carried  before  him.'"1 
If  the  boy-king  was  crammed  by  Cranmer,  pro- 
bably this  actually  took  place.     At  any  rate 
the  utmost  freedom  of  publication  was  decreed, 
and  in   this  short  reign   of  six  years  and   a 
half,  thirty-five  editions  of  the.  New  Testament, 
and  thirteen  editions  of  the  whole  Bible  were 
printed.     The  people  were  allowed  to  exercise 
their    preference    for    Tyndale's,    Coverdale's, 

*  Westcott.     Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  116. 


124        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

Taverner's,  or  Cranmer's  versions.  Instead  of 
restrictions  limiting  to  the  educated  class  the 
right  of  reading  the  Scriptures,  "  the  public  use 
of  them  was  made  the  subject  of  admonition 
and  inquiry."*  The  people  were  exhorted  to 
read. 
Formation  of  Meanwhile  a  new  labor  fell  to 

the  Prayer-Book.    /-*  i   •    i          •          • , 

Cranmer,  which,  in  its  turn,  en- 
grossed his  attention  as  a  matter  of  the  next 
importance.  This  was  the  constitution  of  the 
English  Church  and  the  remoulding  of  the  Ser- 
vice Books.  Now  commenced  the  formation  of 
the  Book  of  Common-Prayer,  like  the  birth  of 
a  sister,  following  the  already  sturdy  youth  of 
her  elder  brother  the  English  Bible.  Even  at 
this  stage  of  their  growing  together  we  can  find 
the  lineaments  of  a  family  likeness  between 
them.  The  "  Psalter"  version  of  the  Psalms 
was  taken  from  the  Great  Bible  of  Cranmer, 
and  has  been  allowed  to  remain  through  all  the 
repeated  revisions  of  the  Prayer-Book,  because 
of  its  better  adaptation  to  choral  rendering. 

*  Westcott.     Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  116. 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYND ALE'S  VERSION.  125 

It  was  declared  to  be  "smoother  and  more 
easy  to  sing."  The  familiar  sentences  in  the 
Communion  office,*  also,  continue  as  they  were 
in  the  Great  Bible,  and  are  to  us  the  footsteps, 
yet  unobliterated,  of  the  Bible  as  it  was  then 
passing  on  to  a  period  of  greater  perfection. 
Those  old  standards  and  authorities  of  church 
doctrine,  the  "  Homilies,"  also,  are  thick-strewn 
with  like  vestiges  of  this  period,  for  all  their 
quotations  of  Scripture  are  from  this  Bible  of 
Cranmer. 

But  the  next  historic  vicissitude     ThePersecu- 
was  close  at  hand,  to  cut  short  the 
labors  of  the  English  Reformers  on  the  Prayer 
Book,  and  to  bring  another  stifling  but  brief 
epoch  upon  the  Bible  they  had  given  to  the 
church.     Edward  died,  and  was  succeeded  by 
his    Roman  Catholic   sister,   Mary.     Cranmer 
and  Rogers  now  went  to  the  stake.     Coverdale,. 
who  had  been  made  Bishop  of  Exeter,  fled  to 
the  continent.     The  Bible  was  removed  from 

*  Westcott  says  that  these  were  independently  trans- 
lated by  Cranmer  from  the  Latin. 
9 


126        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

the  churches,  which  had  become  Roman  Catho- 
lic again.  Everything  fell  back  into  the  old 
condition  of  the  time  of  Tyndale.  The  Bible 
printing  presses  were  stopped.  The  Bibles 
were  burnt.  The  crown,  the  cardinal,  and  the 
bishops  were  again  in  array  against  them,  and 
the  people  were  again  obliged  to  keep  their 
precious  treasure  concealed. 
The  revision  Once  more  was  the  undertaking 

of  the  Bible  at  .  .    . 

Geneva.  ot    Scriptural   revision   driven   into 

exile,  to  gather  new  strength  for  its  next  inva- 
sion of  England.  Of  admitted  imperfection, 
as  it  stood,  even  by  Cranmer  himself,  and  look- 
ing to  another  revision  which  should  satisfy 
scholars  by  diminishing  the  infusion  of  Cover- 
dale's  too  free  phraseology,  the  Great  Bible  was 
destined  to  be  superseded  by  another  magnifi- 
cent contribution,  which  should  bring  the  Ver- 
sion a  long  step  further  on  toward  the  point  of 
perfection  so  anxiously  desired.  And  this 
next  stage  in  the  interesting  progress  was  not 
in  the  line  of  the  English  Church,  for  the 
English  Church  lay  under  suppression : 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.  127 

smouldering  in  the  ashes  of  the  martyrs.  The 
Version  that  now  appeared  was  made  under 
the  lantern  of  John  Calvin.  It  came  from 
the  Puritans  and  Presbyterians  of  Ita  remarkable 
Geneva,  and  proved  to  be  one  of  the  D 
wisest  and  greatest  of  the  translations,  one  of 
the  noblest  of  the  tributaries  which  joined  the 
swelling  river,  bringing  a  wealth  in  its  allu- 
vium of  renderings  by  which  the  Bible  will 
always  be  enriched ;  and  yet  on  account  of 
one  unfortunate  peculiarity  in  its  editing, 
creating  a  ripple  in  the  smooth  current  of  its 
language  by  which  the  pellucid  meaning  of 
the  original  beneath  is  almost  hopelessly  dis- 
turbed. This  was  the  breaking  up  of  the 
paragraphs  into  verses.  But  the  account 
of  a  translation  of  such  marked  origin,  in- 
fluence, and  character,  of  which  it  can  be  truly 
said  that  it  was  "for  sixty  years  the  most 
popular  of  all  Versions,"  a  formidable  rival  for 
nearly  a  generation  of  our  present  Bible,  com- 
peting with  that  consummate  work  of  the 
church,  even  after  its  own  best  elements  had 


128       OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

been  incorporated  therein,  an  exile  from  Eng- 
land and  produced  independently  of  the 
church, — the  account  of  such  a  translation  may 
well  open  the  next  stage  of  this  chapter  of 
Bible  history  and  conduct  it  to  its  close.  We 
have  so  far  seen  the  Providential  influence  of 
individualism  in  Tyndale,  of  eclecticism  in 
Coverdale,  of  ecclesiasticism  in  Cranmer;  and 
now  we  shall  see  the  influence  of  Puritanism 
(or  independency),  in  the  Version  of  Geneva, 
of  the  Established  Church  (or  authority),  in  the 
Version  of  the  Bishops,  and  finally  of  the  best 
catholicity  that  was  then  attainable  in  the 
Version  of  the  King. 

THE  BIBLE  OF  GENEVA. 

The  product         As   the   best   beginning   for   the 

of  independent 

mind«.  translation  of  the  Bible  proved  to 

be  an  individual  version,  for,  in  that,  was 
reached  the  fixed  character  of  its  structure,  so 
the  best  contribution  to  its  subsequent  im- 
provement came  from  independency.  And,  at 
that  time,  the  conditions  of  both  were  persecu- 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.          129 

tion  and  exile.  Thirty  years  after  the  lone 
Tyndale's  Version  appeared — in  1557-60 — 
another  of  almost  equally  marked  character 
came  forth  from  the  press  of  Geneva,  the  city 
of  Calvin  and  Beaa,  and  was  executed  chiefly, 
as  to  the  New  Testament,  by  one  man,  (Wil- 
liam Whittingham,  a  brother-in-law  of  Calvin) 
but  not  in  loneliness,  nor  in  poverty,  nor  want 
of  sympathy ;  for  a  company  of  scholars,  in- 
cluding Coverdale,  assisted  him.  Calvin  him- 
self penned  the  Introduction,  and  the  congre- 
gation of  exiles,  with  enthusiastic  generosity, 
paid  for  the  printing,  which  was  beautifully 
done,  and  with  ideal  sentiment,  from  silver 
type.* 

It    was    the    persecution    under     Pr0videntiai 
Mary  which  had  brought  about  this 
expatriation   of    such   a  number   of  English 
people,   and   it  was   the   presence   of  Calvin 
which  produced  this  concentration  of  non-con- 
forming    Biblical     students     and     others     at 
Geneva.     "  For  the  first  time,"  says  Westcott, 

*  Anderson.     Annals  of  the  Eng.  Bib.  ii.  307. 


130        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

"  the  task  of  emendation  was  undertaken  by 
men  who  were  ready  to  press  it  to  the  utter- 
most. They  spoke  of  their  position  as  Provi- 
dential, and  in  looking  back  upon  the  later 
results  of  their  Bible,  we  can  thankfully 
acknowledge  that  it  was  so."  *  "  Seeing,"  they 
say  in  their  Preface,  "  the  great  opportunity 
and  occasions  which  God  presented  unto  us  in 
this  Church,  by  reason  of  so  many  and  godly 
men  and  such  diversity  of  translations  in 
divers  tongues,  we  undertook  this  great  and 
wonderful  work,  which  our  God  according  to 
His  divine  Providence  hath  directed  to  a  most 
prosperous  end."  Their  advantages  had  been, 
besides  the  material  already  accumulated, 
certain  new  Versions  in  German  and  Latin, 
especially  the  latter  of  Beza.  They  had 
around  them  also  a  group  of  scholars  who 
were  engaged  in  correcting  the  French  Ver- 
sion ;  which  Calvin,  by  the  way,  revised  three 
times  in  thirteen  years.  The  basis  of  their 
work  was  the  Great  Bible  of  Cranmer.  Origi- 

*  Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  272. 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.  131 

nal  and  independent  as  it  was,  it  was  still, 
like  all  its  predecessors,  only  a  revision.  A 
readiness  to  accept  suggestions  from  this  and 
that  quarter,  and  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
assistance  of  many  minds,  would  seem  to  have 
been  the  humble  and  true  principle  of  the 
translators.  And  this  principle  of  conference 
and  consultation  afterward  grew  into  the 
appointment  of  companies  of  scholars,  com- 
missioned to  execute  the  work,  as  we  shall  see 
in  the  case  of  the  two  remaining  Versions 
which  complete  the  series. 

Certain  it  is  that  no  other  Version  except 
the  present  one  has  had  more  the  decided 
approval  of  learned  men.  Probably  every  one 
qualified  "to  judge  \vill  endorse  the  declaration 
of  Mr.  Scrivener,  one  of  the  most  careful  and 
accurate  authorities  of  the  age,  who  has 
minutely  investigated  its  critical  value.  "  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say,"  he  writes,  "  that  their 
(the  Geneva  translators')  Version  is  the  best  in 
the  English  language,  with  the  single  exception 
of  the  Authorized  Bible." 


132        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AXD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

characteristics       Besides   its   wonderful    merit   as 

which  gave  it 

(••MM  revealing   more   of    the   force   and 

meaning  of  the  originals  than  any  preceding 
translation,  it  had  certain  other  marked 
features.  Hitherto  the  Bibles  which  had  come 
out  by  royal  license,  and  been  ordered  to  be 
Bet  up  in  the  churches,  had  been  produced  on 
too  stately  a  scale,  and  with  a  certain  safe 
leaning  backwards,  even  in  mechanical  form 
and  execution,  which  is  characteristic  of  all 
official  authorizations,  but  which  is  too  slow 
and  hesitating  to  suit  the  spirit  of  activity  and 
progress.  The  Bibles  of  Coverdale,  Cromwell, 
and  Cranmer  had  all  appeared  in  ponderous, 
unwieldy  folios,  and  were  printed  in  black- 
letter,  a  type  then  unpopular  and  not  easily 
read.  The  more  free  and  independent  issue 
of  the  Genevan  scholars,  who  were  not  ham- 
pered by  the  heavy  machinery  of  church  and 
state,  was  a  product  which  assimilated  itself, 
externally  as  well  as  internally,  with  the  spirit 
of  the  age  and  the  mind  of  the  people.  It 
had  no  royal  or  ecclesiastical  reluctance  to 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.  133 

declare  itself  thoroughly ;  either  in  the  fearless 
renderings  of  its  text,  or  in  any  necessary 
departure  from  the  traditional  proprieties  of 
publication  which  might  bring  it  the  nearer  to 
the  popular  heart.  Its  first  purpose  was  to  be 
read  and  understood.  And,  therefore,  more 
than  any  other  Version,  it  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing the  hearths  and  homes  of  England.  In- 
stead of  appearing  in  tremendous  and  expensive 
folio,  it  came  out  in  a  comparatively  small  and 
cheap  quarto.  Instead  of  wearing  the  ancient 
and  obsolescent  vesture  of  black-letter,  it  went 
among  the  people  in  the  every-day  garb  of  the 
roman  character, 

In  addition  to  this,  its  margins     itaBibiewc- 
were  full  of  condensed  and  telling 
comments,  which  seemed  to  elicit  the  spiritual 
meaning  of  passages  still  obscure  in  the  trans- 
lation.    Of  course  these  marginal  interpreta- 
tions were   somewhat   Calvinistic.     A   subse- 
quent edition  was  accompanied  by  an  excellent 
Bible  Dictionary — another  most  wise  provision 
for  its  entire  intelligibility. 


134        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

Anunfortn-          Another  element  of  its   adapta- 

nate  novelty. 

The  paragraph      tlOD      to      the      people,     while      at      tllC 

broken  into 

yerses.  time  well  calculated  to  make  it  effec- 

tive, afterward  proved  to  be  a  most  unfortunate 
innovation,  and  this  feature  has  come  down 
even  to  us  as  a  heritage,  which  to-day,  instead 
of  making  the  Bible  popular  and  readable, 
rather  makes  it  unpopular  and  unreadable, 
besides  giving  it  in  an  unessential  respect  a 
peculiarity  among  other  books.  This  is  the 
breaking  up  of  the  paragraphs  into  the  frag- 
ments called  "verses"  or  "texts."  It  was 
never  done  until  this  Genevan  version  did  it. 
At  first,  as  we  have  seen,  it  was  only  a  device 
of  a  printer  of  a  Greek  Testament  to  facilitate 
reference,  and  the  figures  were  placed  on  the 
margin,  while  the  page  remained  as  it  was 
written.  Now,  however,  the  Bible  appeared, 
broken  into  these  minute  portions,  and  such  an 
intense  and  individual  look  was  given  to  each 
of  them,  that  they  seemed  to  be  pithy  expres- 
sions, full  of  their  own  meaning,  apart  from  any 
paragraphical  connection,  like  proverbs,  apho- 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.          135 

risms,  and  wise  sayings.  These  came  to  be 
quoted  as  separate  utterances,  and  were  balanced 
against  or  combined  with  similar  apothegms  to 
be  found  elsewhere  in  the  Holy  Book,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  the  mental  habit  set  in  of  catch- 
ing the  meaning  of  the  Bible  by  a  comparison 
and  collection  of  these  detached  portions,  more 
than  by  apprehending  the  current  thought  of 
the  writings  as  they  were  continuously  read. 
It  became  an  effort  to  follow  the  thread  of  an 
argument  or  extended  statement  with  these 
incessant  breaks  in  the  texture.  The  Bible 
might  have  remained  clear  to  a  mind  which 
could  overlook  them,  but  this  innovation  fur- 
nished too  often  an  occasion  for  the  uncultivated 
intellect  to  stumble  and  to  stop,  and  then  to 
form  conceptions  and  theories,  and  finally  build 
doctrines  out  of  this  broken  material  which 
otherwise  would  never  have  had  such  a  sug- 
gestion. Sectarianism  has  found  any  amount 
of  opportunity  amid  these  unfortunate  schisms 
in  the  simple  text  of  the  Scriptures.  We  can- 
not thank  the  Puritan  Presbyterian  Bible, 


136         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

therefore,  for  this  novelty.  But,  at  the  time, 
it  was  wisely  contrived  to  enhance  the  popu- 
larity of  the  new  Version ;  and  little  did  its 
authors  dream  of  its  ultimate  abuse. 

The  Apocrypha  One  other  peculiarity  of  the  Gene- 
van Version  may  be  mentioned  as 
having  had  an  effect  in  the  present  time.  It 
was  the  first  to  omit  the  apocryphal  books,  and 
therefore  few  Bibles  now  contain  them.  The 
Apocrypha,  while  properly  not  canonical,  has 
become  too  rare  and  is  too  little  read.  It  yet 
retains,  however,  its  place  in  the  official  Bible 
of  the  English  Church,  not  as  an  authority, 
but  as  containing  a  certain  splendor  of  truth 
and  a  practical  wisdom,  in  many  portions, 
which  the  church  "would  not  willingly  let 
die." 

Acce«.kmof         The  Genevan  Version,  originating 

Elizabeth.    Re-  ,.  .  - 

turn  of  the  Bible  m  so  many  peculiar  providences,  and 

to  England  in          j  i  j     i  i  •    • .         •, 

the  Genevan       developed  by  so  much  spiritual  in- 
sight, found,  in  the  evolution  of  its 
good  fortune,  the  time  already  ripe  for  its  issue 
and  reception.     "Bloody  Mary"  had  just  died, 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALE'S  VERSION.          137 

and  the  protestant  Elizabeth  had  ascended  the 
throne  of  England.  At  the  first,  indeed,  it 
would  seem  as  if  it  were  threatened  with  Tyn- 
dale's  experience  over  again,  for,  having  been 
printed  a  few  months  before  Mary's  death,  the 
ports  of  England  were  shut  against  it.  But  the 
change  to  Elizabeth  suddenly  opened  the  whole 
country  to  the  return  of  the  exiles  with  their 
noble  achievement. 

When  the  Version  entered  England  it  came 
of  course  with  a  "  Dedication  to  the  Queen,"  for 
that  was  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the 
time.  But  it  came  also  with  another  signifi- 
cant innovation  :  an  Address  to  the  People. 

The  coronation  ceremonies  and  pageant  of 
Elizabeth,  like  those  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  were 
curiously  associated  with  the  new  freedom 
given  to  the  Scriptures.  Lord  Bacon  relates 
this  incident :  "  On  the  morrow  of  her  corona- 
tion, it  being  the  custom  to  release  prisoners  at 
the  inauguration  of  a  prince,  one  of  her 
courtiers  besought  her  with  a  loud  voice : 
That  now  this  good  time  there  might  be  four 


138        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

or  five  principal  prisoners  more  released ;  there 
were  the  four  Evangelists  and  the  Apostle  St. 
Paul,  who  had  long  been  shut  up  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  as  it  were  in  prison,  so  that 
they  could  not  converse  with  the  common 
people." 
The  release  of  The  freedom  that  followed — and 

all  the  Versions. 

The  greater       it  was  now  for  ever — came  alike  to 

popularity  of  the 

Genevan.  all  the  Versions  then  in  existence; 
but  the  Genevan  had  more  than  liberty ;  it  had 
popularity.  It  was  so  expressly  constructed 
for  the  people,  and  marked  such  an  era  of  pro- 
gress on  this  account  that  it  distanced  every 
other  in  their  affections,  and  became  the  house- 
hold Bible  of  England.  The  Great  Bible  was 
left  far  behind.  It  was  restored  to  the  churches 
foe  public  reading,  but  the  Genevan  was  read 
at  the  hearth-stone.  There  it  remained  a 
favorite  for  seventy-five  years,  and  became  the 
Bible  of  the  great  Puritan  party. 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYXDALE'S  VERSION.  139 


N00fficiaijn. 

tolerance,  aa  yet, 

f  ^^  Ter. 


THE  BISHOPS'  BIBLE. 

One   generous   and  fearless  idea 

•  1      i  ,1   •       ,•  -i    .    -I      «, 

prevailed  at  this  time  which  it  were  o 
well  if  something  like  it  prevailed 
now.  There  was  no  popular  uneasiness  about 
the  appearance  of  many  versions,  and  no  official 
determination  to  make  one  fixed  and  unvarying 
standard,  in  English,  represent  the  ancient 
tongues  ;  but  there  was  a  tendency  to  make  the 
last  Version  better  than  any  former  one.  Tyn- 
dale's  and  Coverdale's  translations  and  the 
Great  Bible  continued  to  be  published.  No 
less  than  forty  editions  of  them  were  printed 
and  circulating  all  through  Elizabeth's  and 
James's  reign,  and  ninety  of  the  Genevan.* 
Besides  these  there  were  several  Liberal  policy 

of  archbishop 

individual  Versions  ;  the  one  already  Parker- 
noticed  by  Taverner,  and  another  by  Lawrence 
Tomson,  based  on  the  Genevan,  and  which  was 
very  popular.     An   instance  of  this  want  of 
solicitude   on   account  of  such  a  diversity  of 

*  Anderson.     Annals  of  Eng.  Bib.  ii.  353. 


140        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

translations,  and  how  little  it  entered  the  mind 
of  the  fathers  of  the  English  reformation  that 
such  could  have  any  effect  in  undermining  the 
faith  of  the  people — a  misgiving  strangely 
prevalent  now — is  furnished  by  no  less  an 
eminent  personage  than  Cranmer's  own  suc- 
cessor* in  the  See  of  Canterbury,  archbishop 
Parker.  Even  while  his  thoughts  -were  intent 
on  producing  still  another  Version  that  should 
be  superior  to  the  Genevan,  he  used  his  influ- 
ence with  the  authorities  to  have  the  Genevan 
printed  in  England.  (It  had  been  printed  all 
along  on  the  continent.)  In  his  letter  to  Cecil, 
he  says,  That  to  encourage  the  Genevan  would 
"  nothing  hinder,  but  rather  do  much  good  to 
have  diversity  of  translations  and  readings,  "f 
Like  Coverdale  he  felt  the  contributory  power 
of  many  minds,  and  the  endless  opportunity 
for  improvements  and  new  developments  which 
lay  in  so  great  an  undertaking.  And  this  it 

*  Immediate  successor,  if  we  omit  the  Roman  Catholic 
Reginald  Pole. 

f  Plumptre.     Smith's  Bib.  Diet.  iii.  1674. 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYNDALKS  VERSION.         141 

was  which  urged  him  on  to  make  even  another 
attempt,  in  the  hope  of  reaching  a  more  perfect 
Version  still.  Never  at  any  time,  in  this  or 
the  succeeding  period,  did  either  the  people  or 
their  leaders  dream  of  attaining  a  final  and 
unchangeable  completeness.  The  work  was 
always  issued  like  one  that  might  still  be 
improved,  and  seldom,  if  ever,  were  the  print- 
ers given  the  book  to  be  set  up  again  without 
retouches  more  or  less  numerous. 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the  Eng-     Hi8  project  of 

•t  •    i      /-N-i  i  j        • ,  i  a  new  Version. 

lish  Church  made  its  new  endeavor 
to  issue  even  a  better  Version  than  the  Gene- 
van, and  to  resurrect  the  Great  Bible  in 
another  big  folio,  that  should  again  be  placed 
on  the  lecterns  in  the  cathedrals  and  churches, 
and,  it  was  hoped,  find  also,  in  a  smaller  form, 
an  equally  popular  place  on  the  family  table. 
It  was  high  time  that  this  was  done,  for  the 
ecclesiastical  Great  Bible  was  suffering  by  com- 
parison with  the  household  Genevan.  So  the 
archbishop  started  on  his  enterprise  in  the 
same  direction  as  Cranmer  had  before  him. 
10 


142        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

He  laid  his  plans  before  the  bishops  and  other 
learned  men.  This  was  in  1563.  Like  Cran- 
mer  he  distributed  the  Bible  in  parcels  among 
them  to  receive  their  corrections  and  sugges- 
tions, after  which  the  fragments  were  to  be 
returned  to  him  for  final  revision  and  publica- 
tion. Unlike  Cranmer  he  was  met  with  quick 
and  generous  encouragement,  and  after  five 
years'  labor,  what  was  known  as  the  "  Bishops' 
Bible"  was  published  by  him  in  a  magnificent 
volume.  It  incorporated  many  of  the  render- 
ings of  the  Genevan  Bible.  Four  years  after, 
in  1572,  another  edition  was  issued,  still  fur- 
ther revised,  especially  in  the  New  Testament. 
So  delighted  was  archbishop  Parker  with  his 
work  that  when  the  volume  was  finished  he 
uttered  the  exclamation  of  Simeon  as  he  took 
the  Christ-child  in  his  arms,  "Now  lettest 
Thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine 
it,  .useful  eyes  have  seen  Thy  salvation!"* 

^umpuoiTof      And   yet  the   same  wise  COnSCioUS- 
f     .  , 

ness   of   incompleteness  comes   out 
*  Eng.  Hexapla,  42. 


DESCENDANTS  OF  TYXD  ALE'S   VERSION.          143 

in  the  Preface  of  the  revisers.  "  There  be 
yet  in  the  Gospels,"  they  say,  "very  many 
dark  places  which  without  all  doubt  to 
posterity  shall  be  made  much  more  open. 
For  why  should  we  despair  herein,  seeing  the 
Gospel  was  delivered  to  this  intent  that  it 
might  be  utterly  understanded  of  us,  yea,  to 
the  very  inch?  Wherefore  *  *  *  who  can 
doubt  but  that  such  things  as  remain  yet  un- 
known in  the  Gospel  shall  be  hereafter  made 
open  to  the  later  wits  of  our  posterity,  to  their 
clear  understanding?"  "They  felt  then," 
says  Westcott,  "  that  their  labor  was  provi- 
sional, and  that  the  Spirit  had  yet  further 
lessons  in  His  Word  to  teach  to  later  ages."* 

The  whole  influence  of  the  church  The  riTalry  of 
was  put  forth  to  make  this  the  Bible 
of  universal  use,  but  the  whole  preference  of 
the  people  still  continued  for  the  Genevan. 
The  one  was  the  official  Version,  and  the  other 
the  popular  Version,  and  both  were  quite 

*Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  184. 


144         DUE  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

abreast  in  the  race  of  merit,  if  not  in  that  of 
acceptance. 

But  now  we  shall  come  to  that  other  and 
final  endeavor,  which  took  up  the  Bishops' 
Bible  and  revised  it  so  well  and  so  thoroughly 
that  after  a  long  run  through  a  generation  or 
two,  the  Genevan  gave  up  the  race,  and  retired 
to  its  present  place  as  a  Version  gone  out  of 
use.  This  renewed  official  attempt  was  that 
which  produced  our  present  Bible. 


IV. 

THE  PRESENT  BIBLE. 

ITS  FORMATION.  —  ITS  GENERAL  EXCELLENCE.  —  POINTS 
OF  REVISION  AND  IMPROVEMENT. 


/^iUR  present  Bible  is,  in  the  order  of  its 
generations  since  Tyndale,  a  seventh  son. 
It  would  seem  to  have  taken  its  patent  of 
nobility  by  virtue  of  that  long  descent  through 
the  most  heroic  period  of  the  church,  and  to 
have  earned  its  title  of  "  The  Authorized," 
because  it  inherited  so  many  of  the  excellencies 
of  its  ancestors,  and  produced  so  many  of  its 
own. 

The    two    rival   Versions,    "the 


Genevan  Ver- 

Genevan"  and  "  the  Bishops',  "  con-  «°n  nor  the 

Bishops'  satiafao- 

tinued  to  occupy  the  realm,  the  one  tory. 
mostly  in  the  homes,  the  other  mostly  in  the 
churches,  for   a  little  more  than  thirty  years 

(145) 


146        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

after  the  date  of  the  latter's  attempt  to  get  the 
supreme  place  in  the  affections  of  the  public. 
But  the  Bibles  of  the  Puritans  were  four  times 
more  numerous  than  the  others.  Nevertheless 
neither  version  was  satisfactory  to  scholars. 
"Grave  fault  was  found  with  both."  No 
attempt,  however,  was  made  during  the  re- 
mainder of  Elizabeth's  long  reign  to  produce 
another ;  but  when  James  the  First  ascended 
the  throne  the  great  undertaking  which 
resulted  in  our  present  Bible  had  a  most  unex- 
pected and  sudden  birth. 
James  i.  The  James,  like  Henry  the  Eighth,  a 

conflict  of  the 

church  party      theological    monarch,   quite   deeply 

and  the  Puritan 

party.  read  in  divinity  and  proud  of  con- 

siderable ability  in  it,  but  at  the  opposite  pole 
from  Henry  in  being  a  Presbyterian,  came  down 
from  Scotland  to  ascend  the  throne  of  England. 
The  two  parties  of  the  church  were  full  of 
agitation ;  the  churchmen  dreading  what  one  of 
them  called  the  coming  "  Scotch  mist,"  the  Puri- 
tans confident  that  a  new  era  was  opening  favor- 
able to  themselves.  Both  parties  sent  messen- 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  147 

gers  to  meet  the  king  in  his  progress.  The 
Puritans  even  burdened  their  messenger  with 
a  bulky  petition,  signed  by  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  clergymen.  But  the  king  had  learned  a 
lesson  or  two  in  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  and  was 
wary  of  the  Puritans.  He  received  the  dean 
of  Canterbury,  the  messenger  of  the  archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  graciously,  but  he  issued  a 
proclamation  against  any  more  Puritan  peti- 
tions. It  was  evident  that  he  intended  to 
maintain  the  established  order  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  not  accommodate  it  to  the 
ideas  of  the  powerful  party  within  its  borders. 
The  Puritans  were  especially  discontented  with 
the  Prayer-Book,  and  complained  of  the  cor- 
rupt translation  of  the  passages  of  Scripture 
contained  in  it,  all  of  which,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, were  taken  from  Cranmer's  Great  Bible 
and  the  Bishops'  Bible.  So  the  gathering 
struirde  of  the  adherents  of  the  Genevan  Bible 

<_.  c 

with  those  of  the  Church  Bible,  came  to  an 
issue  in  the  field  of  the  common  liturgy.  The 
Prayer-Book  was  the  battle-ground,  and  the 


148         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

pivM'iit  Version  was  the  result  of  the  battle ;  and 
this  result  came  about,  not  by  the  victory  of 
one  side  and  the  defeat  of  the  other,  but  by 
the  unexpected  development  of  a  new  event, 
which,  like  a  banner  in  the  sky,  diverted  the 
attention  of  both  combatants. 

The  nampton        This  is  the  singular  history.    The 
ence.  Puritan  clergy  asked  for  a  conference 

with  the  king  and  the  bishops,  at  which  certain 
of  their  representatives  should  discuss  in  the 
royal  presence,  and  with  the  bishops,  the  dif- 
ferences which  then  divided  the  church.  The 
request  was  granted.  But  a  frightful  plague 
broke  out  in  London,  and  the  matter  had  to 
be  postponed  for  awhile.  The  king  retired  to 
the  palace  of  Hampton  Court,  a  royal  abode 
picturesquely  situated  some  distance  up  the 
Thames,  and  which  had  been  the  splendid  gift 
of  cardinal  Wolsey  to  king  Henry  the  Eighth. 
It  was  within  these  once  alien  precincts  that  the 
project  of  the  Authorized  Version  was  to  be 
born,  for  the  conference  was  called  together  here. 
King  James  presided,  with  much  parade  of 


THE  PRESENT  BtDLE.  149 

oratory  and  learning,  but  listening  to  the 
debates  with  interest  and  alert  intelligence. 
Nine  bishops,  six  deans,  and  one  archdeacon 
were  present.  The  bishops  were  arrayed  in  their 
episcopal  robes,  as  when  they  sat  in  the  House 
of  Lords;  the  other  divines  wore  the  scarlet 
gowns,  customary  to  doctors  of  divinity.  But 
the  four  representatives  of  the  Puritans  de- 
parted so  far  from  the  clerical  costume, 
respectful  to  the  occasion,  as  to  appear  in 
"  such  gowns  as  were  then  commonly  worn  by 
Turkey  merchants,  cloth  gowns  trimmed  with 
fur."*  It  was  a  symbol  of  their  radicalism, 
and  contempt  of  the  church  order  and  tradi- 
tion. Besides  these  twenty,  there  were  pre- 
sent some  members  of  the  Privy  Council,  five 
ecclesiastical  lawyers,  among  whom  sat  a 
Scotch  Presbyterian  minister,  "the  solitary 
dissenter."  Such  was  the  celebrated  Hampton 
Court  Conference.  Three  days  were  spent  in 
discussion,  but  with  little  result  so  far  as  any 
of  the  matters,  "  amiss  in  the  church,"  pre- 

*  Blunt.     Plain  Account  of  the  Eng.  Bible,  73. 


150         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

viously  arranged  for  discussion,  were  concerned. 
The  controversy  raged  chiefly  around  the  revi- 
sion of  the  Prayer-Book,  but  with  no  effect 
except  to  bring  about  "  a  few  verbal  changes 
A  new  version  °f  no  importance  whatever."  The 
complaints  by  the  Puritans  of  the 
use  of  the  then  authorized  Bible  in  the  Prayer- 
Book,  brought  the  debate  to  a  point  where  both 
sides,  to  their  surprise,  perhaps,  came  to  a 
sudden  agreement.  Dr.  John  Reynolds,  Presi- 
dent of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  the 
leader  of  the  Puritan  four,  "  moved  his  majesty 
that  there  might  be  a  new  translation  of  the 
Bible,  because  those  which  were  allowed  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth  and  Edward  the 
Sixth  were  corrupt,  and  not  answerable  to  the 
truth  of  the  original."  It  was  a  motion  and  a 
necessity  which  had  been  apparently  but  little 
considered  by  these  readers  of  the  "Genevan 
Version,"  for  the  alleged  corruptions  of  the 
"  Bishops'  Bible,"  when  they  named  them, 
were  so  few  and  trivial  as  not  to  merit  discus- 
sion. The  proposition  was  met  characteristi- 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  151 

cally  by  the  bishops,  with  indifference  and 
timid  conservatism,  the  Bishop  of  London  pro- 
bably giving  utterance  to  the  sentiment  of  the 
others,  by  exclaiming,  "  If  every  man's  humor 
should  be  followed,  there  would  be  no  end  of 
translating."  But  the  king,  not  yet  such  a 
bigoted  churchman  as  to  let  his  common  sense 
be  hampered,  and  at  least  enough  of  a  Puritan, 
through  his  Presbyterian  education,  to  have  a 
ready  instinct  for  progress,  with  a  quick  intelli- 
gence caught  at  the  idea,  and  it  is  owing  to  him 
that  it  did  not  evaporate  with  Dr.  Beynolds's 
breath. 

"  He  sketched  out  in  a  moment,"     The  wag 

favors  the  under- 

says  Blunt,  "  an  idea  of  the  way  in  taking, 
which  the  work  should  be  undertaken."  *  He 
disliked  the  Genevan  Version,  because  some  of 
its  notes  were  not  favorable  to  king-craft.  As 
to  the  Bishops'  Bible  it  was  confessedly  imper- 
fect, and  the  Great  Bible  still  continued  to  be 
read  in  some  of  the  churches.  So  there  was 
a  want  of  uniformity,  as  well,  even  in  the 

*  Plain  Account  75. 


152        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

Authorized  Bible  of  the  church.  "  His  high- 
ness," the  record  says,  "wished  that  some 
special  pains  should  be  taken  in  that  behalf 
for  one  uniform  translation,  and  this  to  be 
done  by  the  best  learned  in  both  the  universi- 
ties ;  after  them  to  be  revised  by  the  bishops 
and  the  chief  learned  of  the  church ;  from 
them  to  be  presented  to  the  Privy  Council; 
and,  lastly,  to  be  ratified  by  his  royal  authority. 
And  so  this  whole  church  to  be  bound  upon  it, 
and  none  other."  He  added,  on  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  bishop  of  London,  "  that  no  mar- 
ginal notes  should  be  added"  like  those 
"annexed  to  the  Geneva  translation." 

The  conference  broke  up ;  the  Puritans  hav- 
ing been  driven  from  point  to  point  by  the 
onsets  of  the  bishops,  and  failing  at  last  in 
all,  except  in  the  result  of  this  one  immature 
proposition,  which  did  make  a  lodgment  in 
the  royal,  if  not  in  the  episcopal  mind,  and 
was  destined  shortly,  by  the  royal  influence, 
to  take  the  magnificent  shape  in  which  it 
afterward  appeared. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  153 

During  the  next  five  months  the  Thepianof 
king  was  busy  with  his  councillors  !< 
in  selecting  those  to  whom  the  new  transla- 
tion was  to  be  committed,  organizing  the 
"companies"  into  which  they  were  to  be 
divided,  arranging  the  method  of  the  work, 
and  laying  down  the  principles  upon  which  it 
should  be  executed.  Fifty-four  distinguished 
scholars  were  fixed  upon,  and,  by  command  of 
the  king,  Bancroft  bishop  of  London  commu- 
nicated with  each  of  them,  "informing  them 
that  it  was  the  king's  pleasure  that  they 
should  begin  their  work  immediately."  One 
very-  practical  suggestion,  of  a  material  nature, 
was  acted  upon  in  the  month  following.  In 
order  to  insure  the  pecuniary  support  of  the 
translators  during  the  long  labor  now  assigned 
them,  some  of  whom  had  to  give  up  their 
regular  church  or  professional  engagements, 
the  archbishops  and  bishops  were  enjoined  to 
keep  in  reserve  whatever  gifts  of  position  and 
emolument  were  in  their  hands,  or  under  their 
influence,  for  those  who  were  insufficiently 


154        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

provided.    Contributions  of  mone}'  also  were 
solicited,  and  other  measures  suggested  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  the  undertaking, 
composition         The    companies   were    made    up 

of  the  compa-  .,.          .  11*1  i  • 

nieewhowereto  with  justice  and  liberality  in  other 

make  the  revi- 

Bion.  respects  also.     Ihere  were  as  many 

clergy  of  the  Puritan  party  appointed  as  of  the 
Church  party :  among  them  Dr.  Reynolds,  and 
Dr.  Chatterton,  one  of  his  fellows  at  the  confer- 
ence. Laymen,  also,  of  eminent  scholarship, 
were  associated  with  the  clergy — and  the 
bishops  were  enjoined  by  the  king  "  to  inform 
themselves  of  all  such  learned  men  within 
their  several  dioceses,  as,  having  especial  skill 
in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  tongues,  have  taken 
pains  in  their  private  studies  of  the  Scriptures, 
for  the  clearing  of  any  obscurities  either  in  the 
Hebrew  or  in  the  Greek,  or  touching  any  diffi- 
culties or  mistakings  in  the  former  English 
translation,  which  we  have  now  commanded 
to  be  thoroughly  viewed  and  amended,  and 
thereupon  to  write  unto  them,  earnestly  charg- 
ing them,  and  signifying  our  pleasure  therein, 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  155 

that  they  send  such  their  observations  *  *  * 
to  be  imparted  to  the  rest  of  their  several  com- 
panies ;  that  so  our  said  intended  translation 
may  have  the  help  and  furtherance  of  all  our 
principal  learned  men." 

Thus    the    preparations   for   the     the  project 

iii-  11  looked  upon  as 

undertaking  were  most  elaborate  oniyanewen- 
and  thorough.  All  the  learning  of 
the  kingdom  was  to  be  concentrated  upon  it. 
And  yet  it  was  looked  upon  by  all  as  still  ten- 
tative— still  only  an  attempt  to  reach  a  greater 
perfection  than  any  of  its  predecessors — still  a 
feeling  out  into  the  future.  The  Preface  claims 
for  it  neither  the  merit  of  originality  nor  the 
intent  of  finality.  As  the  work  was  itself 
derived,  so  all  that  was  hoped  for  it  was  the 
superior  excellence  which  could  not  but  result 
after  such  an  amount  of  care,  labor,  and 
scholarly  pains  had  been  expended  upon  it. 
It  was  regarded  as  only  one  grander  step  for- 
ward than  had  yet  been  taken. 

The   principles   and   instructions     ate  prindph* 

of  the  new  revi- 

which   were    given    to    guide    the  sion. 


156        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

undertaking  are  in  themselves  a  foreview  of 
its  history,  and  exhibit  the  limitations  by 
which  it  was  kept  from  attaining  the  perfect 
ideal  even  then  before  some  scholarly  minds. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  detail  in  full  these  in- 
structions, but  the  mention  of  a  few  will  draw 
attention  to  the  points  where  it  was  compelled 
to  fall  short. 

The  first  injunction  was  to  make  the 
"  Bishops'  Bible"  the  basis  of  the  revision,  and 
to  alter  it  as  little  as  the  original  would  permit. 
Already  had  there  set  in  around  this,  the 
Authorized  Version  of  that  day,  something  of 
the  reverential  feeling  which  has  gathered 
about  the  present  one,  and  this  injunction 
was  "  intended  probably  to  quiet  the  alarm 
of  those  who  saw,  in  the  proposal  of  a  new 
Version,  a  condemnation  of  that  already  exist- 
ing."* The  ecclesiastical  words,  which  Tyn- 
dale  had  neglected,  and  Coverdale  had  restored, 
were  to  be  retained — and  so  we  have  "  church" 
instead  of  "  congregation,"  and  "  charity" 

*  Plumptre.     Smith's  Bib.  Diet.  iii.  1676. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  }  :>~ 

instead  of  "love,"&c.  "When  a  word  hath 
divers  significations,"  runs  the  fourth  rule, 
"  that  to  be  kept  which  hath  been  most  com- 
monly used  by  the  most  ancient  fathers,  being 
agreeable  to  the  propriety  of  the  place,  and 
the  analogy  of  the  faith."  "This,"  says 
Plurnptre,  "like  the  former,  tends  to  confound 
the  functions  of  the  preacher  and  the  trans- 
lator, and  substitutes  ecclesiastical  tradition 
for  philological  accuracy."  The  fifth  rule 
directs  "  the  division  of  chapters  to  be  altered 
either  not  at  all,  or  as  little  as  may  be,  if 
necessity  so  require."  On  which  Plumptre 
comments :  "  Here,  again,  convenience  was 
more  in  view  than  truth  or  accuracy,  and  the 
result  is  that  divisions  are  perpetuated  which 
are  manifestly  arbitrary  and  misleading." 

The  sixth  rule  enjoined  "no  marginal  notes 
at  all  to  be  affixed,  but  only  for  the  explana- 
tion of  the  Hebrew  or  Greek  words,  which 
cannot,  without  some  circumlocution,  so  briefly 
and  fitly  be  expressed  in  the  text ;"  on  which,. 

among  other   things,   Mr.   Plumptre  well   re- 
ll 


158        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

marks,  "  Had  an  opposite  course  been  adopted, 
we  might  have  had  the  tremendous  evil  of  a 
whole  body  of  exegesis  imposed  upon  the 
church  by  authority,  reflecting  the  Calvinism 
of  the  synod  of  Dort,  the  absolutism  of  James, 
the  high-flying  prelacy  of  Bancroft." 

The  remaining  portion  of  the  rules  sketches 
the  plan  of  the  revision,  makes  provision  for 
difficulties  and  for  a  wider  consultation  with 
scholars,  if  necessary,  appoints  the  directors  of 
the  work,  and  finally  names  the  Versions  of 
Tyndale,  Coverdale,  Rogers,  Cranmer,  and 
Geneva,  enjoining  that  if  the  renderings  of  any 
of  them  should  agree  more  with  the  originals 
than  those  of  the  "  Bishops'  Bible,"  they  should 
be  adopted. 

The  Revision  The  revisers  —  forty-seven,  not 
;:;±raty  fifty-four  as  appointed-divided  into 
tafori,MdCtai.  gix  companies,  set  to  work  simulta- 
neously in  Westminster,  Oxford, 
and  Cambridge,  two  companies  in  each  place, 
one  engaged  on  the  Old  Testament,  the  other 
on  the  New.  This  was  in  1607.  The  work 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE. 

(which  very  likely  had  been  already  begun  in 
parts)  proceeded  so  noiselessly  for  the  four 
years  to  come  that  we  can  hardly  find  anything 
in  contemporary  documents  or  correspondence 
which  will  give  us  an  inner  glimpse  of  its  pro- 
gress. The  process,  we  know,  was 

The  process. 

this.  The  translators  being  gathered 
at  their  three  centres,  two  companies  at  each 
centre,  every  member  of  a  company  took  the 
same  portion,  and  translated  and  amended  it 
by  himself.  Then  all  met  together,  each 
bringing  his  own  work.  After  a  collation  and 
comparison  of  renderings  a  selection  was 
agreed  upon,  and  then  a  single  copy  made  of 
the  portion  as  thus  revised.  Selden,  in  his 
"  Table  Talk,"  opens  to  us  an  inside  view  at 
this  stage  of  the  proceedings.  "  That  part  of 
the  Bible  was  given  to  him,"  he  says,  "  who 
was  most  excellent  in  such  a  tongue,  and  then 
they  met  together,  and  one  read  the  transla- 
tion, the  rest  holding  in  their  hands  some 
Bible,  either  of  the  learned  tongues,  or  French, 


160        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

Spanish,  Italian,  &c. ;   if  they  found  any  fault 
they  spoke ;  if  not,  he  read  on."  * 

The  work  of  a  company  being  thus  far  done, 
the  result  was  sent  to  the  other  companies  for 
criticism.  If  alterations  were  suggested  which 
were  approved,  they  were  adopted  at  once.  If 
the  suggestions  were  not  agreed  to,  they  were 
referred  to  a  final  committee  of  revisers.  This 
committee,  composed  of  two  from  each  com- 
pany, met  at  the  close  in  London.  Thus  every 
portion  passed  through  thirteen,  and  sometimes 
sixteen,  examinations,  and,  as  the  substance  of 
every  portion  was  the  Bishops'  Bible,  the  pro- 
cess was  like  a  system  of  natural  filtration  by 
which  that  work  was  clarified  and  purified ;  and 
a  very  close  system  of  filtration  it  proved  to  be, 

*  These  Bibles  were,  beside  those  already  mentioned, 
the  Douay-Rhemish  version  (from  which  many  Latinized 
words  were  taken),  several  new  Latin  Versions  which  had 
appeared,  the  authorized  French  Bible,  put  forth  by  ';  the 
Venerable  Company  of  Pastors"  at  Geneva,  an  Italian 
translation  just  issued  (1607)  by  Diodati,  and  two  Spanish 
versions. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  161 

for  never  before  was  any  version,  on  the  whole, 
so  colorless  or  so  pure  as  this  which  had  perco- 
lated through  such  a  varied  stratification.  Fil- 
tration, however,  can  hardly  describe  the  whole 
process,  unless  there  be  included  with  it  a  posi- 
tive element  of  improvement  derived  from  the 
different  media  through  which  the  percolation 
passed,  in  which  case  the  living  water,  though 
not  less  colorless,  may  be  said  to  have  now 
issued  forth  with  additional  virtue  as  a  healing 
power. 

The  year  1611  saw  our  present 


Bible  published,  in  a  large  black-  of  four  years. 
letter  folio,  by  the  committee  of  final  revision. 
It  had  much  in  its  favor,  already,  to  commend 
it  to  the  public.  It  came  with  the  whole  influ- 
ence of  the  throne,  with  the  prestige  of  con- 
temporary scholarship,  and  finally  with  the 
great  advantage  of  a  general  adoption  by  the 
Established  Church,  for  the  publication  of  the 
"  Bishops'  Bible"  ceased  when  it  was  issued.* 

*  Though  its  adoption  was  general,  yet  in  some  churches 
the  '•  Bishops'  Bible"  was  not  displaced  by  it  for  a  long 


1G2        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

But  to  none  of  these  advantages  does  there 
seem  to  have  been  given  any  undue  prominence 
or  pressure  by  the  authorities.  The  work  was 
left  with  the  greatest  confidence  to  make  its 
own  way  among  the  people,  and  to  distance  if 
it  could  by  its  own  intrinsic  merits  all  competi- 
tors. The  following  remarkable  statement  is 
made  by  Mr.  Westcott :  "  No  evidence  has  yet 
been  produced  to  show  that  the  version  was 
ever  publicly  sanctioned  by  Convocation  or  by 
Parliament,  or  by  the  Privy  Council,  or  by  the 
king.  It  gained  its  currency  partly,  it  may 
have  been  by  the  weight  of  the  king's  name, 
partly  by  the  personal  authority  of  the  prelates 
and  scholars  who  had  been  engaged  upon  it, 
but  still  more  by  its  own  intrinsic  superiority 
over  all  its  rivals."  * 

HOW  it  came         The  Genevan  Bible  continued  to 

thorizedVer-""     be  printed  and  continued  to  be  read 

(in  a  way  that  will  shortly  be  told), 

time.     Ten  years  after  its  publication  we  find  Bishop  An- 
drews, one  of  its  leading  revisers,  taking  the  tests  of  his 
sermons  from  the  "  Bishops'  Bible." 
*  Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  158. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  163 

but,  by  the  middle  of  the  century,  after  a  com- 
petition of  fifty  years,  it  had  gradually  gone  out 
of  use,  and  thus  the  "  Authorized  Version"  of 
the  present  day  proves  to  have  taken  its  own 
place  not  by  royal  decree,  but  by  the  choice  of 
the  people:  "Authorized"  because  preferred 
and  accepted  by  them.  It  marks  a  curious  revo- 
lution in  a  single  century,  for,  scarcely  one 
hundred  years  before,  Tyndale  and  his  Version 
made  on  behalf  of  the  people,  could  not  get 
even  the  ear  of  the  king,  much  less  his  license, 
and  now  the  matter  was  so  completely  turned 
the  other  way,  that  the  king,  having  originated 
and  elaborated  a  most  perfect  revision,  appeals 
to  the  will  and  leaves  it  all  to  the  consent  of 
the  people.  What  a  change  too,  and  what  a 
consummation  since  Wycliffe's  day !  Mr.  West- 
cott  thus  eloquently  concludes  his  own  history : 
"  Whatever  else  may  be  thought  of  the  story 
which  has  been  thus  imperfectly  told,  enough 
has  been  said  to  show  that  the  history  of  the 
English  Scriptures  is,  as  was  remarked  by 
anticipation,  unique.  The  other  great  verna- 


164        Or/i  i;.\GIJSn  BIBLE  AXD  ITS  ANCESTORS. 


cular  versions  of  Europe  are  the  works  of  single 
men,  definitely  stamped  with  their  impress  and 
bearing  their  names.  A  German  writer  some- 
what contemptuously  remarks  that  it  took 
nearly  a  century  to  accomplish  in  England  the 
work  which  Luther  achieved  in  the  fraction 
of  a  single  lifetime.  The  reproach  is  exactly 
our  glory.  Our  Version  is  the  work  of  a  church 
and  riot  of  a  man,  or  rather  it  is  a  growth  and 
riot  a  work.  Countless  external  influences, 
independent  of  the  actual  translators,  con- 
tributed to  mould  it;  and  when  it  w:is  fash- 
ioned the  Christian  instinct  of  the  nation, 
touched,  as  we  believe,  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
decided  on  its  authority.  But  at  the  same 
time,  as  if  to  save  us  from  that  worship  of  the 
letter,  which  is  the  counterfeit  of  true  and 
implicit  devotion  to  the  sacred  text,  the  same 
original  words  are  offered  to  us  in  other  forms 
in  our  Prayer-Book,  and  thus  the  sanction  of 
ii-c  is  distinguished  from  the  claims  to  finality. 
Our  Bible,  in  virtue  of  its  past,  is  capable  of 
admitting  revision,  if  need  be,  without  violat- 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  105 

ing  its  history.  As  it  gathered  into  itself, 
during  the  hundred  years  in  which  it  was 
forming,  the  treasures  of  manifold  labors,  so  it 
still  has  the  same  assimilative  power  of  life."* 
The  history  of  the  immediate  The  strong. 

f    L  i          //  I"        »       T»-I  i       »  •,     fate  ami  exp*ri- 

outset  oi  the  "Kings  JJible,    as  it  emvofnu- 

. .      -  ,  .     Genevan  Bible 

was  called,  is  a  singular  one,  and  i,,i,,,oit«,>ut 

.  .  ,   .  .  .  .  nut  of  use. 

shows  that  this  universal  authoriza- 
tion, though  it  came  at  last,  was  long  delayed 
— delayed  not  by  a  want  of  appreciation,  but 
by  party  strife.  Five  editions  of  it  were 
rapidly  issued,  and  were  an  earnest  of  the 
success  which  belonged  to  it,  but  the  times 
were  in  tumult  with  the  Puritan  excitement, 
which  was  on  the  increase.  There  was  a 
rampant  use  and  abuse  of  the  Genevan  Bible 
for  the  next  fifty  years,  under  the  influence  of 
this  excitement,  which,  as  in  all  such  cases, 
kept  the  calmer  and  greater  power  biding  its 
time  in  the  background.  The  irresponsible 
issue  of  the  Puritan  Bible  by  the  printers,  in 
countless  numbers,  and  in  all  forms  and  sizes, 

*  Hist.  Eng.  Bib.  370. 


166         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

under  a  wild  and  often  unprincipled  demand, 
brought  into  it  errors  of  the  most  serious  de- 
scription. Many  of  these  were  purposely  in- 
troduced, either  in  a  spirit  of  mischief  to  create 
confusion,  and  with  malignant  intent  against  a 
doctrine  of  the  church,  or  with  the  design  to 
advance  and  sustain  some  half-fledged  sectarian 
creed.  "The  important  negative"  was,  in  one 
edition,  left  out  of  the  seventh  commandment, 
and  out  of  many  another  passage  also,  to  the 
complete  perversion  of  both  precept  and  doc- 
trine. Sometimes  whole  texts  were  left  out. 
The  learned  Usher  is  described  as  hastening 
one  day  to  preach  at  "  Paul's  Cross,"  and  stop- 
ing  on  the  way  at  a  bookseller's  to  purchase  a 
Bible,  but  "  when  he  came  to  look  for  his  text, 
he  found  to  his  astonishment  and  horror"  that 
the  verse  had  been  omitted !  In  one  Bible  six 
thousand  errors  were  discovered.  In  another, 
three  thousand  six  hundred.  The  great  Sel- 
den  used  to  get^ip  in  the  Puritan  "Assembly 
of  Divines,"  where  the  most  ignorant  discus- 
sions often  prevailed,  sustained  by  these  diminu- 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  167 

tive  Bibles,  which  every  one  was  ready  to  pull 
out  and  quote  in  "  chapter  and  verse,"  and  say, 
"Perhaps  in  your  little  pocket  Bible  with  gilt 
leaves  the  translation  may  be  so,  but  the  Greek 
or  the  Hebrew  signifies  this."  "  While  these 
transactions  were  occurring,"  says  D'Israeli,* 
"it  appears  that  the  authentic  translation  of 
the  Bible,  such  as  we  now  have  it,  by  the 
learned  translators  in  James  the  First's  time, 
was  suffered  to  lie  neglected.  The  copies  of 
the  original  manuscript  were  in  the  possession 
of  two  of  the  king's  printers,  who,  from  cow- 
ardice, consent,  and  connivance,  suppressed  the 
publication ;  considering  that  a  Bible  full  of 
errata,  and  often,  probably,  accommodated  to 
the  notions  of  certain  sectarists,  was  more  va- 
luable than  one  authenticated  by  the  hierarchy ! 
Such  was  the  state  of  the  English  Bible  till 
1660 !" 

But  the  period  of  Puritan  domi-     Th« final  »°- 

ceptance  and 

nation  came  to  an  end,  and  then  the  permanence  of 

the  Authorized 

"  King's  Bible"  took  all  the  more  Ven»oD- 
*  Curiosities  of  Literature,  iv.  354. 


168         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

triumphant  place,  like  a  rock  which  had 
been  only  washed  over  and  submerged,  but 
not  displaced,  by  the  waves  of  fanaticism. 
It  grew  rapidly  in  popular  esteem.  Still, 
not  until  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  nearly  one 
hundred  years  after  its  fii~t  appearance,  did  it 
take  that  very  exalted  position  which  has  been 
accorded  to  it  ever  since.  Then  "  the  tide  of 
glowing  panegyric  set  in,"  says  Plumptre.  "  It 
would  be  easy  to  put  together  a  long  catena 
of  praises  stretching  from  that  time  to  the  pre- 
sent. With  many,  of  course,  this  has  been 
only  the  routine  repetition  of  a  traditional 
boast.  '  Our  unrivalled  translation,'  and  '  our 
incomparable  Liturgy'  have  been,  equally, 
phrases  of  course.  But  there  have  been  wit- 
nesses of  a  far  higher  weight.  In  proportion 
as  the  English  of  the  eighteenth  century  was 
infected  with  a  Latinized  or  Gallicised  style, 
did  those  who  had  a  purer  taste  look  with  re- 
verence to  the  strength  and  purity  of  a  better 
time  as  represented  by  the  Authorized  Version. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  1G9 

*  Each  half-century  has  naturally  added 
to  the  prestige  of  these  merits."* 

It  is  these  literary  excellences  The  elemenu 
which  constitute  now  its  strength  ^Tand 
and  unattainable  perfection.  And  p 
they  were  the  work  of  time — the  work,  also, 
of  its  extraordinary  evolution  out  of  a 
remarkable  opportunity  in  the  history  of  our 
language,  and  its  passage  through  as  remark- 
able an  experience.  No  amount  of  skill  or 
ingenuity  could  produce  such  another  style, 
so  exquisitely  simple  and  so  curiously  inter- 
woven with  the  oriental  idiom  of  the  originals. 
The  story  of  its  gradual  production  is  its  best 
eulogy.  It  contains  the  wealth  of  seven  an- 
tecedent Versions,  and  of  as  many  contem- 
porary Versions  in  other  tongues.  It  took  the 
savor  of  antiquity  from  the  moment  Tyndale 
touched  it,  and  it  always  leaned  back  into  the 
past  at  any  subsequent  revision.  At  no  time 
was  it  other  than  olden  and  oriental  in  its 
modes  and  forms  of  phraseology,  and  therefore, 

*  Smith's  Bib.  Diet.  iii.  1678. 


170        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

as  a  representative  of  the  originals,  themselves 
so  far  in  the  past,  this  one  element  of  it  as  a 
translation  is  of  unspeakable  value.  Whatever 
may  be  done  with  it  hereafter,  this  feature  will 
be  most  jealously  guarded,  and  will  never  be 
permitted  to  depart  from  it. 
The  eicmenu  But  time  has  wrought  a  change 

of  its  present          .    .  ,  n  . 

imperfection  and  in  it,  and  around  it,  as  in  all  other 

improvement. 

things,  a  change  which  does  not 
touch  this  its  inestimable  peculiarity,  but 
which  has  made  more  conspicuous  certain  de- 
fects in  its  structure,  that  were  not  so  apparent 
in  its  own  age,  and  were  only  noticed  here  and 
there  by  learned  men  in  the  early  course  of  its 
progress. 
A  sun  corrupt  To  recur  to  the  obvious  analogy 

original  text.  i    •    i        i  •111  i          i    • 

Progress  of        winch   has  prevailed   through   this 

textual  criticism.  i  i        -i  i      • 

history :  alter  two  hundred  and  sixty 
years  have  passed,  it  has  been  found  necessary 
to  re-examine  and  repair  the  ancient  building 
of  the  Authorized  Version.  A  new  set  of  work- 
men have  been  down  in  the  crypt  of  the  origi- 
nal languages,  and  while  they  have  found  the 


THE  PRETEXT  BIBLE.  171 

massive  walls  and  vaulted  archways  generally 
secure,  yet,  in  the  New  Testament  especially, 
they  have  discovered  so  many  minor  im- 
perfections in  this  textual  foundation  which 
Erasmus,  Ximenes,  Stephens,  and  Beza  laid, 
that  its  solidity  is  seriously  affected.  These 
new  workmen  upon  the  deep-laid  foundations, 
and  in  a  darkness  which  has  all  along  removed 
them  from  popular  sight  and  appreciation,  are 
almost  too  many,  now,  to  mention  in  detail. 
We  must  content  ourselves  with  the  names  of 
the  master- work  men.  John  Mill  began  at  it 
before  the  seventeenth  century  was  out.  Then 
Bengel  and  Wetstein,  in  Germany,  devoted  them- 
selves to  it  in  the  first  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. In  this  the  nineteenth  century,  Griesbach, 
Scholtz,  Lachman,  and  Tischendorf,  all  Ger- 
mans, and  Tregelles,  Wordsworth,  Ellicott,  and 
Alford,  all  Englishmen,  have  labored  so  magni- 
ficently, that  even  the  unscholarly  mind  has 
sometimes  taken  a  rush-light  and  gone  down  into 
the  crypt  to  curiously  view  their  stupendous 
achievements  in  the  way  of  emendation,  and 


172         01' II  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

the  astonishing  contributions  to  the  strength 
of  the  original  walls  which  several  of  them 
have  made  in  their  discovery  of  forgotten 
stones,  chiselled  for  this  very  work,  but  left  in 
the  quarry  until  now.* 

The  effect  or  And  time  has  had  its  inevitable 
<au»Knff&h  way,  also,  with  the  English  walls 
above.  Many  a  competent  architect- 
translator  has  watched  them  with  anxiety  for 
many  years.  Here  and  there  a  crack  has  come 
from  the  want  of  perfect  solidity  below.  In 
many  places  the  imperfect  masonry  of  the  early 
builders  has  begun  to  expose  itself.  And, 
everywhere,  also,  not  deeply,  not  essentially, 
but  still  importantly,  the  sure  corrosion  of 
years  is  manifest  in  words  crumbling  away 
from  their  primitive  import,  scaling  off  from 
their  original  force  and  beauty,  like  the  stones 
in  the  quadrangles  of  the  Oxford  colleges,  and 

*  The  signalizing  of  the  "  Thousandth  English  Tauch- 
nitz"  by  the  issue  of  the  New  Testament  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Tischendorf,  showing  the  various  readings  of  the 
three  oldest  MSS  ,  is  an  indication  of  the  popular  interest 
in  this  province  of  inquiry. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  173 

the  fronts  of  old  cathedrals,  and  making  one 
apprehensive,  if  not  of  ultimate  destruction,  at 
least  of  the  loss  of  much  present  strength  and 
meaning,  should  nothing  be  done  to  arrest 
decay.  If  we  add  to  this  the  existence  of  some 
deformities  and  excrescences,  unnecessarily 
suffered  to  appear  in  the  too  literal  rendition 
of  an  age  grosser  in  taste  than  this,  allowed  in 
it  like  the  coarse  grotesques  of  ancient  archi- 
tecture, we  sum  up  the  whole  of  those  serious 
imperfections  which  have  given  rise  to  the  pre- 
sent inevitable,  and  we  may  say,  irresistible 
movement  toward  a  new  revision  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. 

Still  one  other  want  has  been 
developed  by  time,  in  the  progress 
of  intellect  and  inquiry.  Hitherto  the  Eng- 
lish Bible,  through  one  great  omission  in  its 
making  up,  has  failed  to  convey  its  whole  sug- 
gestion, and  to  adapt  itself  to  the  human  life 
of  to-day,  or  rather,  to  speak  more  correctly, 
the  human  life  of  to-day  has  not  been  drawn 
by  it  back  into  the  ages  of  its  original  inspira- 

12 


A  notable  defi- 
ciency. 


174         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

tion,  and  made  to  live  over  again  the  experi- 
ence out  of  which  it  grew.  The  Version  im- 
plies a  modern  consciousness  throughout,  and 
resembles,  in  its  absence  of  allusion  to  the  an- 
cient and  Eastern  types  of  life,  that  celebrated 
picture  by  Paul  Veronese,  of  the  marriage  at 
Cana  of  Galilee,  now  in  the  Louvre,  where  a 
great  Venetian  feast-table  is  portrayed  on  a 
huge  canvas,  crowded  around  by  lords  and 
ladies  in  the  rich  and  gorgeous  costumes  worn 
by  the  contemporaries  of  the  painter.  The  rir- 
cumstances  under  which  the  original  outwardly 
grew,  and  under  which  the  successive  parts  of 
its  great  interior  history  unfolded  itself,  ought 
to  be  made  actual  and  vivid  to  the  modern 
imagination.  This  is  a  matter,  not  so  much  of 
translation  as  of  restoration.  Accompanying 
the  process  which,  like  translation,  transports, 
so  to  speak,  the  ancient  work  into  the  present 
time,  there  ought  to  be  a  process  of  revivifica- 
tion or  resuscitation  by  which  the  mind  and 
situation  of  the  past  should  be  made  entirely 
familiar  to  the  consciousness  of  the  present 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  175 

day.  The  Bible  can  never  be  intelligently 
read,  and  the  full  proportion  and  relation  of 
its  parts  can  never  be  properly  apprehended, 
nor  can  its  whole  living,  breathing,  every-day 
humanity  be  realized,  unless  the  translation  is 
supplemented  by  a  system  of  dense  and  graphic 
notes  (not  "comments")  which  shall  revive  the 
manners,  the  customs,  the  scenes,  the  institu- 
tions, the  ideas,  the  traditions,  and  even  the 
superstitions  which  prevailed  at  the  time  its 
several  scrolls  were  written.  The  Book  must 
not  only  be  translated  forward  into  the  age  of 
the  reader,  but  the  reader  himself  must  also  be 
translated  backward  into  the  ages  of  the  Book. 
His  mind  and  heart  must  be  after  a  manner 
orientalized,  before  he  can  become  competent 
to  understand  with  full  intelligence  the  peculiar 
methods  and  allusions  of  oriental  speech  and 
life. 

The  Genevan  version,  among  its     The  need  of 

archaeological 

other  wise  provisions,  moved  some-  notes  to  revive 

its  ancient  cir- 

what  in  this  direction,  by  introduc-  cumstances. 
ing  into  one  of  its  later  editions  a  Bible  Die- 


176         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

tionary.  But  the  present  need  of  the  English 
Bible,  a  need  never  so  manifest  before,  is  a  full 
accompaniment  of  archaeological  foot-notes, 
drawn  from  the  immense  treasury  of  such 
knowledge  which  has  accumulated  in  recent 
years.  The  very  fact  that  such  a  number  of 
scholars  have  been  lately  so  active  in  seeking 
and  acquiring  knowledge  of  this  character  is 
an  indication  of  the  mental  demand  of  the  age, 
and  ought  to  be  more  than  a  hint  to  the  next 
editors  of  the  English  Scriptures.  If  this  is 
not  to  be  a  feature  of  the  coming  Bible,  its 
narratives,  its  prophecies,  and  its  teachings  will 
continue  to  be,  as  they  have  been,  without  a 
background  or  an  atmosphere.  Its  historic 
scenes  will  still  appear  like  the  pictures  of 
Chinese  art,  without  perspective,  piled  one  on 
the  top  of  the  other,  and  the  living  words  of 
Christ  and  of  His  apostles  will  come  to  the 
reader  without  the  vital  air,  as  it  were,  on 
which  they  were  spoken,  and  by  which  only 
they  could  have  been  then  truly  articulated 
and  therefore  be  now  truly  apprehended. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  177 

The  following  are  the  points  or  oc-     ri^e  ^^  of 

•  />•  i     i  T_  •    l_      XT      A.    incompleteneiw. 

casions  of  incompleteness  which  affect 
our  present  Bible,  and  which  were  inevitable, 
either  in  the  age  of  its  production,  or  in  the  sub- 
sequent passage  of  years :  First :  the  admitted 
imperfection  of  the  original  texts — particularly 
the  Greek  tex' — this  having  been  made  especi- 
ally manifest  by  the  late  discovery  and  colla- 
tion of  manuscripts  of  much  greater  age  and 
authority ;  second :  the  comparatively  insuffi- 
cient knowledge  of  the  original  languages  on  the 
part  of  the  translators,  especially  in  some  of  the 
niceties  of  grammar  and  philology  :  third :  the 
insensible  lapse  of  our  own  language,  and  the 
obsolete  and  obsolescent  character,  therefore, 
of  many  of  our  words,  by  which  the  meaning 
they  had  once,  has  gone  out  of  them,  and  by 
which  they  have  become  assigned  to  other  and 
narrower  uses  and  associations;  fourth:  the 
lack  of  brief  philological  (not  theological),  an- 
notations, critically  developing  all  the  sub- 
tilties  couched  in  a  word  or  phrase  of  the 
original,  and  also  of  a  full  marginal  "  variorum,'* 


178        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

or  renderings  of  different  hands,  by  the  com- 
bination of  which  the  whole  force  and  spirit 
of  the  original  should  be  thrown  out,  like 
an  odor,  whenever  the  English  expression 
adopted  in  the  text  might  prove  to  be  inade- 
quate without  a  resort  to  circumlocution; 
fifth:  the  lack  also  of  archaeological  notes 
which  would  restore,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
occasion  of  the  original  composition  and  the 
contemporary  circumstances  of  each  book,  and, 
in  some  cases,  part  of  a  book. 

Seven  errors  T°     theSG     negative     pOUltB     of     m- 

completeness  may  be  added  these 
positive  errors  of  judgment :  first,  in  the  divi- 
sion of  the  books  into  chapters,*  and  the  chap- 

*  The  translators  are  not  responsible  for  the  division  into 
chapters,  but  for  the  adoption  of  it.  "  It  derived  its  origin 
from  Cardinal  Caro.  who  lived  in  the  twelfth  century." 
See  Campbell's  Translation  of  the  Gospels,  I.  492. 

"  There  are  several  instances  in  which  the  sense  is 
injured,  if  not  destroyed,  by  an  improper  division.  Very 
often  the  chapter  breaks  off  in  the  midst  of  a  narrative, 
and  if  the  reader  stops  because  the  chapter  ends,  he  loses 
the  connection.  Sometimes  the  break  is  altogether  in  the 
wrong  place,  and  separates  two  sentences  which  must  be 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  179 

ters  into  verses,*  in  places  where  the  sense  of  a 
passage  is  interrupted  by  the  division;  second, 
in  the  breaking  up  of  the  paragraphs  into 
verses  instead  of  keeping  the  figures  on  the 
margin  to  facilitate  reference  merely ;  third, 
in  the  introduction  of  the  chapter-headings,  by 

taken  together  in  order  to  be  understood." — Eadie's  Bill. 
Encyclopedia. 

"  In  each  of  the  following  sixteen  passages,  the  connec- 
tion between  the  end  of  one  chapter,  and  the  beginning 
of  the  other,  is  so  intimate  as  to  render  the  chapter  divi- 
sion extremely  unsuitable :  1  Sam.  ix.  x. ;  Eccles.  xi.  xii.; 
Song  iv.  v.;  Isa.  Hi.  liii. ;  Ezek.  i.  ii.;  Amos  i.  ii.;  Jonah 
i.  ii. ;  iii.  iv. ;  Mark  viii.  ix. ;  John  xviii.  xix. ;  Acts  iv. 
v.;  xxi.  xxii. ;  2  Cor.  iv.  v. ;  Gal.  iv.  v. ;  Eph.  v.  vi. ; 
Heb.  iii.  iv.  Such  are  a  few  specimens  of  the  extreme 
inaccuracy  with  which  the  text  of  Scripture  is  divided.'' — 
Plea  for  a  New  Enyl.  Version  of  the  Scri'pturcs,  Ly  a 
Licentiate  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  199. 

*  "  The  following  are  a  few  of  many  passages  in  which 
the  versification  is  extremely  inaccurate :  Exod.  xx.  5,  6 ; 
9,  10;  Deut.  xxxiv.  1,  2,  3;  10,  11,  12;  Isa.  Ixii.  6,  7  ; 
John  iii.  14,  15;  Rom.  viii.  33,  34;  1  Cor.  iii.  22,  23; 
vi.  19,  20  ;  vii.  29,  30,  31 ;  Gal.  v.  19,  20,  21 ;  22 
Eph.  i.  15,  16  ;  2  Tim.  iii.  16;  17  ;  Heb.  i.  1,  2  ;  1  Pet 


180         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

which  an  interpretative  gloss  or  commentary  is 
often  made,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Canticles, 
Psalms,  and  Prophets,  to  anticipate  the  reading 
of  a  chapter;  fourth,  the  introduction  of  an 
excessive  amount  of  italicised  expressions,  ori- 
ginally intended  to  clear  the  meaning,  but 
which  in  some  cases  affect  the  sense ;  *  fifth, 
a  want  of  uniformity  in  proper  names,  by  which 
the  personages  of  the  Old  Testament  are  hardly 
recognisable  in  the  New,  and  the  connection  of 
the  two  histories  is  almost  broken  apart  ;f 

i.  3,  4,  5.  In  each  of  these  sixteen  passages  the  former 
verse  ends  and  the  latter  begins  in  the  midst  of  a  sen- 
tence." 11.  197. 

*  This  was  done  after  1611.  Great  errors  crept  into  the 
text,  and  it  had  to  be  revised.  This  revision  was  made  by 
.Dr.  Scattergood  in  1683  and  by  Dr.  Blayney  in  1769.  The 
latter  revised  the  punctuation,  examined  and  corrected  the 
italics,  introducing  them  more  frequently  than  was  neces- 
sary, altered  the  summaries  of  the  chapters  and  running 
titles,  corrected  errors  in  chronology,  and  greatly  increased 
the  number  of  the  marginal  references. 

f  E.  (j.  Elias  for  Elijah,  Eliseus  for  Elisha,  Noe  for 
Noah,  Cis  for  Kish,  Jesus  for  Joshua,  and  so  on. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  181 

sixth,  errors  in  punctuation,  and  especially  the 
want  of  quotation  marks,  by  which  the  frequent 
citations  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  are 
made  almost  unapparent,  and  the  individual 
speeches  which  appear  in  both  Testaments  are 
allowed  to  blend  themselves  with  the  comments 
and  context  of  the  writer;*  and  seventh — a 
matter  of  translation — the  indelicacy  of  many 
passages,  especially  in  the  Old  Testament, 
which  even  a  fidelity  to  the  original  does 
not  make  necessary,  and  which  would  only 
have  appeared  in  an  age  when  literary  and 
social  taste  was  grosser  than  in  this. 

There   were    two    disadvantages  /be  translator* 

o          imperfect  know- 

under  which  the  translators  labored,  IX^JSJ1 
and  which  accounts  for  much  of  the  J^"" 
inadequacy  of  their  Version.    In  the  first  place 

*  In  some  cases  it  will  not  be  easy  to  satisfy  all  readers 
that  the  marks  of  quotation  are  inserted  in  the  right 
place  and  properly  indicate  the  termination  of  a  reported 
utterance,  and  the  beginning  of  the  reporter's  comment, 
but  in  such  instances  the  doubt  ought  to  be  honestly  stated 
and  the  reader  be  left  to  form  his  own  opinion. 


182         OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

they  were  not  as  well  informed  as  we  are  now 
in  the  manners,  customs,  traditions,  ideas,  and 
general  mind  of  the  East;  and  in  the  next 
place,  instead  of  learning  Greek  and  Hebrew, 
as  we  do,  through  English  grammars  and  lexi- 
cons, and  other  philological  aids,  they  learned 
the  Greek  through  the  Latin,  which  was 
almost  a  vernacular  language  to  them,  but  a 
very  coarse  medium  through  which  to  study 
the  subtilest  tongue  on  earth.  The  Greek  has  a 
much  closer  affinity  to  the  English  than  to  the 
Latin.  But  reading  it  with  these  Latin  lenses, 
the  translators  often  failed  to  render  the  true 
force  of  tenses,  cases,  prepositions,  and  articles, 
and  so  we  have  lost  some  of  the  finer  shades 
which  give  emphasis  and  vividness  to  the  ori- 
ginal— not  to  speak  of  being  sometimes  more 
seriously  misled.  As  to  the  Hebrew,  there  was 
another  limitation,  quite  as  unfortunate.  In 
the  strict  line  of  Old  Testament  Hebrew,  there 
were  probably  as  great  scholars  then  as  now. 
Broughton,  (one  of  the  projectors  though  not 
one  of  the  translators  of  the  present  Bible, 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  183 

and  a  severe  critic  of  the  version  when 
finished,)  could  speak  it  like  his  native  tongue. 
But  it  was  learned  at  that  time  in  the  close  tra- 
dition of  the  Rabbins,  and  not  with  the  wider 
illustration  of  the  cognate  Semitic  languages 
which  have  been  opened  by  scholars  since. 
Mr.  Blunt,  an  opponent  of  revi-  The  movement 

to  revision  a  de- 

sion,  says  01  the  present  Bible:  mandof theage. 
"  The  plain  man  may  use  it  with  a  firm  con- 
fidence that  he  is  using  that  which  will  give 
him  substantially  true  impressions  of  what  has 
come  down  to  us  under  the  name  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture."* This  is  no  more  than  any  one  is  pre- 
pared to  say  of  "  Our  dear  old  English  Bible." 
For  a  "plain"  unlearned  Christian,  who  may 
devotionally  read  it,  it  is  all-sufficient.  It  does 
convey  "substantially"  all  of  God's  truth,  and 
in  the  sweetest  and  richest  of  rhythmical 
language.  But  the  movement  to  revision, 
which  to-day  has  become  so  earnest  and  serious 
as  to  engage  the  attention  of  such  a  large 
number  of  English  bishops — the  most  conser- 

*  Plain  Account,  97. 


184       OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

vative  of  all  men — and  which  has  come  at  last 
to  them  after  the  subject  has  been  agitated 
so  many  years,  is  not  made  in  the  interest  of 
"  plain,"  simple  minds,  but  of  a  great,  thinking, 
questioning,  scrutinizing  age ;  it  is  made  in  the 
interest  of  honesty  and  truth ;  it  is  made  be- 
cause "  the  people"  who  have  "  authorized"  the 
present  Version,  desire  it  and  demand  it.  This 
is  an  age  when  the  people,  more  than  ever,  think 
and  read  for  themselves,  and  with  a  culture 
and  intelligence  never  known  before.  Their 
reasonable  wish  is  that  their  Bible  should  come 
to  them  with  no  darkness,  nor  even  dimness 
upon  any  part  of  it,  that  it  should  represent 
the  original  to  the  utmost,  and  that  every  faci- 
lity should  be  given  them  for  arriving  at  the 
most  perfect  knowledge  of  what  is  conveyed  to 
them  in  this  word  of  God.  The  advanced 
character  of  the  age,  therefore,  is  in  itself  an 
argument  for  a  new  advance  also  in  the  English 
Bible. 
The  hutoricai  And  for  that  Bible  to  advance  is 

argument  for  re- 

vision.  only  a  part  of  its  genius,  and  in  the 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  185 

order  of  its  history.  As  we  have  seen,  it  is,  in 
itself,  the  consummate  result  of  repeated  revi- 
sions. Purvey  revised  Wycliffe,*  Tyndale 
revised  himself  many  times,  and  very  probably 
caught  much  of  his  simplicity  of  style  and 
ancient  flavor  from  both  Wycliffe  and  Purvey. 
Coverdale  revised  Tyndale,  Rogers  revised  Tyn- 
dale and  Coverdale,  the  Bible  of  Cromwell  was 
a  revision  of  the  Bible  of  Rogers,  the  Bible  of 
Cranmer  was  a  revision  of  the  Bible  of  Crom- 
well, the  Bible  of  Geneva  was  a  revision  of  the 
Bible  of  Cranmer,  the  Bible  of  the  Bishops  was 
a  revision  of  the  Bible  of  Cranmer  and  of 
Geneva,  and,  finally,  the  Bible  of  king  James 
was  a  revision  of  the  Bible  of  the  Bishops, 
with  the  seven  antecedent  Bibles  open  around 
his  translators,  expressly  to  contribute  each  its 
strength  to  the  mighty  work  which  the  neces- 
sity and  the  spirit  of  that  age  had  inspired. 
In  the  momentum  of  such  a  history,  in  the 
impetus  of  such  an  experience,  it  can  be 

*  Perhaps,  as  Mr.  Blunt  says,  Wycliffe's  Version  was 
a  revision  of  the  previous  Saxon  and  Norman  Versions. 


186        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

nothing  new  or  strange  to  see  the  Scriptures 
ushered  even  once  more  upon  another  critical 
period,  into  a  new  era,  when  still  another  revi- 
sion shall  revive  the  waning  interest,  and 
excite  the  latent  enthusiasm  of  minds  which 
have  never  yet  dreamed  of  or  realized  the 
depth  of  their  divinity  and  the  breadth  of 
their  humanity,  as  a  message  from  God  to 
man.  We  must  have  a  care  of  that  tendency 
in  us  to  the  official  "black-letter,"*  which  would 
retain  the  Bible  in  its  present  shape,  because 
that  shape  is  traditional  and  venerable,  even 
at  the  risk  of  alienating  those  who  would  other- 
wise read  it  j  and  we  must  learn,  at  such  a  time 
as  this,  to  take  hold  of  the  mind  of  the  age  in 
the  wise  spirit  of  the  more  popular  "  roman 
letter,"  and  make  it  an  attractive,  intelligible, 
powerful,  and  penetrating  word  direct  to  the 
hearts  and  the  homes  of  the  people.  The 
church  would  reverse  the  whole  of  her  his- 
tory, and  forget  the  lessons  of  her  experience, 
if  she.  should  act  now  with  any  conservative 

*  See  p.  133. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  187 

reserve  or  timidity  in  giving  to  the  world  just 
that  Bible  which  the  world  needs.  In  the 
spirit  of  Wycliffe  let  her  think  of  the  Bible 
as  expressly  for  the  people.  In  the  spirit  of 
Tyndale  let  her  make  it  colorless  of  any 
church  preconception,  and  convey  absolutely 
what  the  original  conveys.  In  the  spirit  of 
Coverdale,  let  her  gather  the  rich  marginal 
illustration  of  many  translators  around  the 
English  text.  In  the  spirit  of  Cranmer,  let  her 
issue  it  as  from  the  church,  with  conscientious- 
ness, with  dignity,  and  with  authority.  In  the 
spirit  of  Geneva,  let  her  issue  it  without  official 
vesture,  as  a  thing  of  humanity  as  well  as 
divinity,  with  the  contributed  power  of  a 
scholarship  outside  the  church,  and  with  the 
lamp  of  antiquity  in  its  hand  to  illumine  the 
darkness  behind  the  page  and  behind  the 
reader's  eye.  In  the  spirit  of  the  Bishops,  let 
her  publish  it  in  the  hope  that  it  may  exceed 
in  excellence  its  predecessor  and  competitor, 
and  yet  in  generous  confidence,  let  her  give  all 
its  rivals  room.  And,  finally,  in  the  spirit  of 


188        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

king  James  and  of  the  church  in  his  time,  let 
her  work  be  so  carefully,  so  elaborately,  so 
courageously  complete,  both  as  a  Version  and 
as  an  arrangement,  that  she  may  commit  it 
without  reserve  to  the  intelligent  judgment 
of  the  age,  and  trust  to  its  being  "  authorized" 
again  by  the  unanimous  preference,  both  of  the 
church  and  of  the  people,  through  the  com- 
pelling power  of  its  own  perfection. 
NO  extensive  The  delineation  of  all  this  cumu- 

alteration  de- 
signed, lative  force,  which  ought  to  go  into 

the  next  Version,  may  very  possibly  give 
the  reader  the  idea  of  extensive  alteration  : 
such  as  would  almost  destroy  the  identity  of 
the  Bible  and  make  it  look  like  a  new  book. 
This  is  not  designed  by  the  present  movement 
in  the  Church  of  England,  and  it  can  never  take 
place.  The  present  •  Version  is  too  generally 
complete  and  satisfactory  already,  to  admit  of 
any  change  which  would  affect  its  familiar 
and  reverend  form.  The  revision  now  going 
on,  is  no  more  than  a  process  of  preservation 
and  renovation,  like  that  which  may  be,  and 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  189 

often  is,  applied  to  an  ancient  work  of  art. 
The  great  unfinished  picture  of  an  old  master, 
the  lines  of  whose  genius  no  after-hand  would 
dare  to  touch,  may  yet  be  growing  dimmer  and 
dimmer  in  the  lapse  of  time,  its  colors  may  be 
gradually  fading  out,  the  distinctness  of  its 
purpose  may  be  much  impaired,  the  crust  of 
time  may  be  gathering  over  it,  and  the  tooth  of 
time  be  eating  away  the  very  canvas  on  which 
the  precious  work  is  laid.  It  becomes  then  a 
work  of  duty  both  to  the  painter  and  to  the 
world,  that  some  skilful  hand  should  remove 
the  dust  of  years  and  bring  out  the  colors  anew 
in  their  olden  beauty ;  that  some  pencil,  allied 
in  genius  with  its  author,  should  strike  in  the 
unfinished  lines,  and  so  complete  the  work ;  and 
that  by  the  process  of  another  and  newer  art, 
the  work  on  the  perishable  canvas  should  be 
transferred  to  the  imperishable  stones  of  the 
mosaic.  In  like  manner  this  act  of  revision  is 
only  a  cleaning  and  retouching  and  completing 
of  the  ancient  picture,  which  portrays  the 
history  of  our  faith,  and  it  is  an  act  of  rescuing 


190        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

it  from  the  ravages  of  time  by  transferring  it  to 
the  more  permanent  conditions  of  the  present 
day.  And  these  permanent  conditions  of  the 
present  day  are  the  open-eyed  scrutiny  with 
which  the  age  approaches  everything,  and  the 
open-hearted  honesty  with  which  everything 
approaches  the  age. 
The  aery  test  The  fires  of  verbal  criticism  have 

of  adverse  criti- 
cism has  re-       burned  around  the  original  text,  and 

vealed  the  truth 

of  the  original,  the  flames  of  historical  criticism 
have  risen  around  the  books  of  Scripture,  but 
they  have  burned  and  raged  only  to  reveal  the 
pure  asbestos  of  the  divine  origin  and  character 
belonging  to  both. 
so  a  thorough  And  in  like  manner  this  new  pre- 

and  fearless  revi-  r»      1 1  •  i     •  i 

sion  will  insure    sentment   ot    them    in    our    daily 

the  permanency  .     i  i 

of  the  work,       tongue,  must  be  so  true,  so  clear, 

and  unfold  its          .-,  •<•    •  i  •.«.•• 

run  power  to  the  that  criticism  can  no  longer  criticise, 
that  the  vision  of  things  divine  shall 
be  no  longer  dim,  that  their  inspiration  shall  be 
no  longer  doubtful :  the  whole  Bible,  whether 
as  history,  or  prophecy,  or  psalmody,  whether 
as  the  life  of  Christ,  or  as  the  opening  story  of 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  191 

the  early  church,  to  be  so  vivid  in  every  part, 
so  richly  circumstanced  throughout,  and  so  duly 
proportioned  in  the  measure  of  the  import- 
ance belonging  to  every  book,  that  the  Truth 
shall  come  out  in  a  spirit  stronger  than  the 
letter,  and  like  the  sun,  which  in  its  rising  and 
in  its  setting  gives  a  glory  to  the  clouds  that  is 
not  their  own,  fill  these  human  words  of  man's 
contrivance  with  the  splendors  of  a  meaning 
which  none  but  heavenly  light  could  have 
painted  on  them. 

Christianity  can  rely  on,  itself,  and  on  its 
own  consistency  with  itself,  for  its  best  evi- 
dence and  best  credential.  Let  then  every  veil 
be  lifted  from  its  blessed  record,  let  every  occa- 
sion of  dimness  be  cleared  away,  that  every 
eye  may  see  its  greatness,  and  every  heart  bow 
down  before  its  power. 

This  little  history  has  been  pre- 

»  Conclusion. 

pared   because  the  time  is  ripe  for 
the  subject ;  because  the  new  crisis  has  come, 
and  because,  already,  authorized  companies  of 
distinguished    men  are  engaged    in  trying  to 


192        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

meet  it.*  We  ourselves  are  passing  through 
just  such  another  period  as  one  of  those  which 
gave  each  time  the  English  Bible  a  new  and 
better  form.  We  are  at  a  new  stage  of  its 

*  The  mode  of  procedure  by  the  present  re\  isers  is 
modelled  on  that  of  their  predecessors  in  King  James's 
time.  As  the  latter  took  the  then  official  Bible,  "the 
Bishops',"  for  the  basis  of  their  revision,  so  the  former  take 
"The  King's  Bible"  for  the  basis  of  the  new  revision,  and 
seem  to  go  to  work  with  almost  too  much  fear  of  making 
even  most  necessary  changes — (at  least  this  is  the  impression 
conveyed  by  Bishop  Ellicott's  little  book).  The  old  church 
conservatism  still  lingers  in  them,  and  no  doubt,  on  the 
whole,  wisely.  Better  that  they  should  be  slow  than  too 
fast,  timid  -rather  than  rash.  They  are  divided  into  two 
companies,  instead  of  six;  one  engaged  on  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  other  on  the  New.  Their  number  is  not  so 
great  as  in  the  former  revision,  but  vast  treasures  of 
scholarship  have  accumulated  since  then,  which  are  entirely 
in  their  possession.  One  significant  element  of  the  new 
movement  is  the  union  with  it,  by  invitation,  of  eminent 
scholars  outside  the  English  Church.  For  a  full  account 
of  the  character  and  principles  of  the  movement  see 
Bishop  Etticott  "  On  the  Revision  of  the  English  Ntw  Testa- 
ment" London,  1870. 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  193 

history.  The  Holy  Book  is  to  take  another 
step  onward.  It  is  to  leave  behind  the  imper- 
fections of  its  former  construction,  and  to 
assume  that  additional  completeness  which  will 
adapt  it  to  the  necessities  of  a  new  and  remark- 
able age.  Surely,  this  alone  were  occasion 
enough  for  such  a  delineation  of  the  successive 
epochs  of  its  development,  as  has  now  been  so 
imperfectly  performed. 

But  even  if  there  were  no  such  issue  at 
hand,  the  account  of  its  strange  and  eventful 
history  could  not  but  add  a  tenfold  interest  to 
it,  and  reverence  for  it  as  it  is.  It  lives  among 
us  the  venerable  relic  of  a  terrible  and  stirring 
age.  It  came  into  being  amid  persecution  and 
exile.  It  was  sprinkled  with  the  ashes  of  the 
stake,  and  the  blood  of  the  block.  It  was  tram- 
pled under  foot  by  one  king,  but  it  became  the 
royal  diadem  of  another.  It  was  tried  as  silver 
is  tried,  and  as  gold  refined  seven  times  in  the 
fire,  for  in  seven  successive  crucibles  of  intellect, 
saintliness,  and  scholarship,  was  it  gradually 
purged  of  its  dross.  It  was  commenced  in  the 


194        OUR  ENGLISH  BIBLE  AND  ITS  ANCESTORS. 

secret  closet  of  a  lone  translator,  hidden  amid 
the  obscurities  of  a  Continental  town ;  it  was 
finished  in  the  open  chamber  of  a  congress  of 
scholars  in  the  heart  of  the  metropolis  of 
England.  At  the  first  in  journeyings  often,  in 
perils  of  waters,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils 
of  its  own  countrymen,  in  weariness  and  pain- 
fulness,  in  watchings  often,  in  hunger  and 
thirst,  in  fastings  often,  in  cold  and  nakedness, 
it  reached  repose  at  last  in  the  courts  of  princes 
and  governors,  in  the  cloisters  of  universities 
and  cathedrals,  in  the  hearths  and  homes  of  the 
millions  of  a  nation.  It  has  appeared  in  the 
agitations  of  the  state,  and  it  has  felt  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  church.  The  most  critical 
century  of  the  church's  history  is  mirrored  in 
its  bosom,  and  all  the  fluctuations  of  her  doc- 
trine, during  her  season  of  trial,  have  been 
reflected  in  the  mutations  of  its  language. 

The  labor  expended  in  these  pages  will  have 
been  well  bestowed  if  they  shall  have  given 
new  interest  to  this  wonderful  historic  fruit 
and  flower,  and  furnished  a  renewed  occasion 


THE  PRESENT  BIBLE.  195 

of  reverence  for  that  which  deserves,  by  the 
heroism  and  singularity  of  its  experience  in  our 
native  tongue,  as  well  as  by  the  Divinity  of  its 
inspiration  and  authorship  in  the  tongues  of 
men  now  dead  and  gone,  the  title  of  the 
"  BOOK  OF  BOOKS." 


APPENDIX. 


A  NOTE. 

I~T  has  not  been  thought  necessary  to  give  a  list  of  the 
-1-  imperfections  which  originally  appeared  in  the  English 
Version,  nor  of  the  others  which  have  since  become  so 
conspicuously  manifest.  Most  of  them  will  be  found  in  a 
sort  of  tabulated  form,  and  well  reasoned  for  besides,  in  the 
"  Plea  for  a  new  English  Version  of  the  Scriptures,  by  a 
Licentiate  of  the  Church  of  Scotland."  Many  works  of  like 
character  have  appeared  of  late  years,  and,  in  some  cases, 
entire  Versions  by  eminent  scholars  and  philologists.  The 
following  celebrated  persons  are  associated  with  this  move- 
ment as  its  advocates,  either  in  their  works  or  by  their 
individual  translations:  Lowth,  Doddridge,  Wesley,  Camp- 
bell, Newcome,  Waterland,  in  days  gone  by,  and,  to-day, 
Trench,  Scholefield,  Ellicott,  Alford,  Stanley,  Jowett, 
Conybeare,  Howson,  and  many  others. 

(197) 


198  APPENDIX. 

It  may  be  as  well  to  refer  the  reader  to  the  following 
works  lately  published,  containing  suggestions,  more  or 
less  numerous,  for  a  new  revision  :  Archbishop  Trench 
'•'  On  the  Authorized  Version,"  and  "  The  Synonyms  of 
the  New  Testament."  Dewes's  "  Plea  for  a  New  Transla- 
tion of  the  Scriptures."  Scholefield's  "  Hints  for  some  Im- 
provements in  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment." Alford's  "How  to  Study  the  New  Testament." 
"  New  Testament  for  English  Readers,"  and  "  Greek 
Testament."  Francis  Trench's  "  Notes  on  the  New  Tes- 
tament." Bishop  Ellicott  "  On  the  Revision  of  the 
English  Version  of  the  New  Testament."  Lightfoot's 
'•  Fresh  Revision  of  the  New  Testament."  A  list  of  the 
new  "  Versions"  which  have  lately  appeared  would  fill 
another  page. 

The  writer  ventures  to  append  the  following  on  a  point 
that  has  seemed  to  be  strangely  overlooked  by  most,  though 
not  by  all,  and,  in  the  overlooking,  to  involve  even  so  great 
an  inversion  as  the  making  the  ethical  element  of  our 
religion  secondary  to  the  emotional. 

The  Greek  words  have  been  printed  in  English  letters 
also,  in  order  that  the  subject  may  be  understood  by  any 
reader. 


THE  RENDERINGS  "  REPENT  YE"  AND  "  REPENTANCE" 
INADEQUATE  AND  MISLEADING. 


n^HESE  are  the  great  initial,  foreshadowing 
words  of  the  Gospel  which  meet  the  reader 
as  he  opens  his  New  Testament,  at  the  point 
where  its  action  begins.  In  Matt.  iii.  12,  one 
of  them  represents  the  theme  of  John  the 
Baptist's  preaching,  or  more  properly  heralding, 
"  Repent  ye  !"  In  Mark  i.  4,  and  Luke  iii.  3, 
the  other  appears  as  his  theme  in  connection 
with  a  certain  practical  test  .and  outward  sym- 
bol, "  the  baptism  of  Repentance"  Further  on 
in  Matt.  iv.  17,  and  Mark  i.  15,  the  proclaim- 
ing, comprehensive  first  appears  again  "when 
Jesus  began  to  preach,"  after  the  voice  of  John 
had  been  hushed  in  prison  :  "  Repent  ye  !" 
Taking  the  Evangelists  thus  in  harmony  the 
reader  finds  the  keynote  and  strain  of  the 

(199) 


200  APPENDIX. 

whole  Gospel  struck  in  these  words  of  its 
earliest  announcement.  They  are  in  them- 
selves harbingers.  But  I  forget.  If  he  reads  the 
EiKjlish  New  Testament,  with  no  knowledge  of 
the  Greek,  he  does  not  find  the  tenor  of  the 
whole  Gospel  anticipated  in  them,  and  what  is 
more,  he  finds  no  expression  in  the  beginning 
of  John's  Gospel  which  corresponds  to  them — 
thus  throwing  it  out  of  harmony  in  this  par- 
ticular. If,  on  the  contrary,  he  reads  them  in 
the  original,  he  finds  it  otherwise ;  at  least  so 
I  must  understand  if  I  am  right  in  what 
follows. 

The  Authorized  Version  was  made  to  bring 
the  Scriptures  to  the  common  people.  The 
learned  had  them  already  in  the  Greek 
and  Hebrew  originals,  or  in  Latin  Versions. 
The  endeavor  was  to  create  an  English 
Standard  of  revealed  truth,  so  plain  as  to  be 
understood  by  Tyndale's  "  plough-boy"  on  the 
one  hand,  and  so  exact  as  to  be  available  for 
citation  by  teachers  of  the  truth  on  the  other. 
The  words  "  Repent  ye"  and  "  Repentance"  arc 


APPENDIX.  201 

supposed  then  to  represent  the  Greek,  and  to 
convey  the  same  impression  to  people  now  as 
the  original  words  did  to  the  first  readers  of  the 
Gospels.  We  turn  then  to  the  common  mirrors 
of  speech,  in  its  popular  use,  to  ascertain  what 
the  people  do  really  understand  by  them.  Bai- 
ley's Etymological  Dictionary  defines  Repent- 
ance :  "  a  sorrow  for  past  deeds  or  omissions." 
Worcester's  Dictionary  defines  it :  "  The  state 
of  being  penitent ;  sorrow  or  pain  for  something 
done  or  left  undone ;  penitence ;  contrition ; 
compunction ;  remorse."  This  is  its  primary 
signification.  A  secondary  one  is  then  given,, 
taken  from  the  theological  books:  "Sorrow  for 
sin,  such  as  produces  amendment  or  newness 
of  life."  Perhaps  a  book  of  synonyms  may 
give  a  wider  margin  to  the  word;  but  Car- 
penter's Work  furnishes  no  more  than  these : 
"penitence,"  "contrition,"  "remorse,"  "com- 
punction." Perhaps  Roget's  Thesaurus — in 
which  all  the  words,  whether  synonymous  or 
not,  that  can  be  gathered  under  certain  generic 
ideas,  are  to  be  found  classified — may  enlarge 


f>02  APPENDIX. 

the  scope  of  the  word  in  its  popular  accepta- 
tion. But  we  find  it  under  the  head  (that  is 
under  the  idea  of)  "  Penitence,"  and  in  this 
company:  "contrition,"  "compunction,"  "re- 
gret," "  remorse,"  "  self-reproach,"  "  self-re- 
proof," "self-accusation,"  "self-condemnation," 
"qualms  or  prickings  of  conscience,"  "confes- 
sion," "  acknowledgment,"  "  apology,"  and  at  the 
end  of  the  list,  as  if  the  last  and  least  associa- 
tion of  all — the  most  remote  cousin  of  all  that 
kindred — "  to  reclaim,  to  turn  from  sin." 

It  may  be  said  that  the  word  is  technical, 
and  that  to  those  properly  instructed,  it  has  an 
additional  and  peculiar  force.  But  certainly 
the  Bible  ought  to  have  no  technical  terms,  or 
words  of  arbitrary  signification,  unless  the 
poverty  of  the  English  compels  the  absolute 
appropriation  of  a  word  to  a  particular  mean- 
ing. In  view,  however,  of  a  possible  technical 
use  we  turn  to  the  books  of  theological  defini- 
tions. Cruden,  in  his  Concordance  (a  book 
which  accompanies  the  Bible  in  many  house- 
holds), thus  defines  Repentance — "  That  regret 


APPENDIX.  203 

and  reluctance  that  arises  in  a  person  after 
having  done  something  that  he  ought  not  to 
have  done" — and  the  case  in  point  that  is  cited 
is  the  emotion  of  Judas  after  he  had  betrayed 
his  Master.     In  the  technical  definition  which 
follows  of  "Evangelical  repentance,"  it  is  as- 
signed to  "grief"  on  account  of  sin,  and  this 
feeling  "  accompanied  by  a  resolution  to  forsake 
sin,  and  an  expectation  of  forgiveness."     Now 
to  Buck's  Theological  Dictionary  (intended  for 
popular  use)  :  "  In  general,  it  is  sorrow  for  any- 
thing past.    In  theology  it  signifies  that  sorrow 
for  sin  which  produces  newness  of  life."     In 
both  of  these,  whether   popular   or  technical, 
we  see  "  sorrow"  represented  as  the  first  and 
almost  exhaustive  element  of  the  word ;  in  one, 
amendment  of  life  is  implied  as  a  possible  con- 
sequence of  it,  while  in  the  other  it  is  mentioned 
as  the  result  of  it.    But  enough  has  been  quoted 
to  show  that  the  word  refers  more  to  emotion 
than  to  thought  or  action,  and  that  this  is  very 
nearly  the  exclusive  impression  conveyed  by  it. 
Now  shut  the  English  and  open  the  Greek 


1204  AP  PESO  IX. 

Testament,  We  find  John  the  Baptist  and 
Jesus  proclaiming  /uraxjsjre,  metanoeite,  and  John 
proclaiming  the  "  baptism  /aeravwa?,  metanoias." 
But  let  us  pause  a  moment  here,  and  go  to  the 
word  used  to  express  the  feeling  of  Judas  after 
the  betrayal,  which  is  also  rendered  "repent," 
and  which  Cruden  cites  as  the  primary  illus- 
tration of  the  idea.  We  find  /zer^/r^k, 
•iiittdineletheis — a  different  word.  This  is 
only  one  instance  out  of  man}'-  where  a 
single  English  word  is  made  to  do  duty  for  two, 
not  synonymous — nay,  in  this  instance,  almost 
opposite  Greek  words.  But  the  citation  of  this 
alone  will  serve  to  show  that  the  "  habit"  of  the 
A.  V.  prevents  the  English  reader  from  making 
any  distinction  between  the  grand  call  of  the 
Gospel  into  the  way  that  leadeth  unto  Life,  and 
the  wretched  emotion  of  Judas  which  led  him 
to  hang  himself.  Throughout  the  A.  V.  "  re- 
pent" is  indifferently  the  rendering  of  either. 
Thus  we  have  another  element  of  confusion 
added,  and  this  by  the  Version  itself. 

But  to  return  to  our  word  of  splendid  signi- 


APPENDIX.  205 

ficance,  ^-d^a,  metanoia.  It  is  compounded  of 
rj.—a,  meta — after ;  and  vWW)  noed — to  perceive. 
As  the  familiar  -word  metamorphosis,  from 
nsra,  meta — after,  and  /^/^w,  morphoo — to  form, 
means  a  transformation,  and  in  this  sense  is 
applied  to  the  changed  appearance  of  our 
Saviour  on  the  mount,  so  fierdvoia,  metanoia,  is 
a  "  transmentation,"  to  use  a  coinage  of  Cole- 
ridge— a  cliange  of  mind,  a  change  of  perception . 
The  Lexicons  of  the  New  Testament  define  it 
thus  ;  that  of  Green  :  /^raWw,  metandeo,  "  to 
undergo  a  change  in  frame  of  mind  and  feeling 
— to  make  a  change  of  principle  and  practice,  to 
reform,  *  *  practical  reformation — reversal  of  the 
past;"  that  of  Robinson:  "to  perceive  after- 
wards, to  have  an  after-view,  hence  to  change 
ones  views,  mind,  purpose"  And  he  adds,  "  In 
a  religious  sense  implying  sorrow  for  unbelief 
and  sin,  and  the  turning  from  them."  The 
implication  is  of  sorrow  on  the  one  hand,  and 
of  turning  on  the  other;  but  the  middle  and 
essential  meaning  is  a  change  of  perception,  or 
transformation  of  mind.  From  this  trunk 
14 


206  APPENDIX. 

these  two  main  branches  spring,  as  far  as  defi- 
nition is  concerned.  So  much  for  the  word  in 
itself. 

But  now  see  the  reflexive  force  of  its 
circumstances ,  keeping  it  in  that  signification 
and  sublimating  it.  METavoEire,  "  Metanoeite  I " 
said  both  John  and  Jesus,  "  for  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  is  at  hand  !"  JAravoeiTe,  "  Metanoeite  ! 
and  believe  the  good  tidings!"  The  people 
were  summoned  to  a  frame  of  mind  and  heart 
corresponding  to  this  new  order  of  things.  The 
call  was  not  "The  wrath  of  God  has  come! 
Repent  ye  !" — i.  e.  be  penitent ;  but  the  "  Good 
News  has  come,  the  long-expected  kingdom  has 
come — prepare  yourselves  for  it.  The  long-de- 
sired Deliverer  has  come — go  ye  out  to  meet 
Him !"  Of  course,  under  the  stern,  legal 
preaching  of  the  Baptist  that  "  inward  change" 
sometimes  pointed  to  the  "  wrath  to  come,"  and 
doubtless  that  dark  side  of  the  bright  Gospel 
was  often  urged  ;  but  what  do  we  find,  even  in 
his  teaching,  follows  the  call  to  /zerdvoca,  metanoia  ? 
Do  we  read  of  cries,  and  tears,  and  remorse  ?  or 


APPENDIX.  207 

is  it  not  just  the  other  way  ?  Is  it  not  action 
that  we  see,  and  only  emotion  by  implication  ? 
Stirred  by  his  "exhortations,"  and  his  por- 
trayal of  the  Great  One  who  was  at  hand,  they 
crowded  to  his  baptism,  and  going  down  into 
the  water,  "buried"  the  "old  man"  in  that 
grave,  and  rose  again  as  the  "new  man."  If 
that  expressive  act  was  not  a  vivid  symbol  of 
an  absolute  change,  what  could  be  ?  But  still 
further,  see  the  word  in  the  reflexive  light  of 
his  teachings  also — First,  as  a  change  of  percep- 
tion, vow:,  nous,  "  Think  not,"  said  he  to  the 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  and  (according  to 
Luke)  to  the  multitude  as  well,  "Think  not  to 
say  within  yourselves  '  we  have  Abraham  to  our 
father,'  for  God  is  able  of  these  stones  to  raise 
up  children  unto  Abraham !"  A  full  exposition 
of  that  statement  must  have  had  an  enlighten- 
ing and  revolutionizing  effect  on  the  minds 
of  those  who  listened  to  it ;  and  John,  emerg- 
ing from  his  ascetic  seclusion,  in  the  hairy 
dress  and  leathern  girdle  of  an  ancient  prophet, 
with  the  look  of  Elijah  and  the  voice  of  Isaiah, 


208  APPENDIX. 

was  an  unquestioned  authority  on  that  subject 
to  the  multitude,  if  not  always  to  their  leaders. 
So  again,  when  he  said  that  the  axe  was  laid 
at  the  root  of  the  trees,  and  every  tree  that 
brought  not  forth  good  fruit  was  to  be  hewn 
down,  there  was  material  for  "  reflection"  and 
change  of  "perception,"  bordering  close  on  a 
change  of  disposition  also ;  for  the  heart  is  not 
far  off  from  the  mind,  and  a  change  of  situa- 
tion in  one  is  apt  to  induce  a  change  of  situa- 
tion in  the  other. 

And  Second,  "Bring  forth,"  said  he,  "fruits 
worthy  of  perd-soia,  metanoia,"  and  in  a  few  lines 
we  have  a  digest  of  his  practical  teachings  of 
what  a  man  should  do,  whose  perceptions  had 
been  changed.  Read  the  ps-rawa,  metanoia ,  in 
this  light:  To  the  people  who  asked  "What 
must  we  do,  then?"  he  said,  "He  that  hath 
two  coats,  let  him  impart  to  him  that  hath 
none;  and  he  that  hath  meat,  let  him  do 
likewise."  To  the  publicans,  "  Exact  no  more 
than  that  which  is  appointed  you."  To  the  sol- 
diers, "  Do  violence  to  no  man ;  neither  accuse 


APPENDIX.  209 

any  falsely ;  and  be  content  with  your  wages." 
These  glimpses  into  his  teaching  are  his  own 
definition  of  ^-dvtna,  metanoia.  It  was  nothing 
less  than  a  change  of  view  as  to  principle,  and 
a  reformation  as  to  heart  and  life,  and,  as  far 
as  the  stress  of  the  record  goes,  more  of  either 
than  of  sorrow,  evidently  and  strongly  as  that 
is  implied  also.  So,  if  we  seek  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  word  from  its  circumstances,  and 
the  import  of  the  proclamation  from  its 
effect,  we  find  ^rd^na,  mctanoia,  to  have  a 
meaning  immeasurably  deeper  and  grander  than 
the  repentance  of  the  dictionaries  and  the  ver- 
nacular. It  meant  just  what  it  was  prophesied 
that  John  should  accomplish.  He  was  to  "  turn 
the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and 
the  disobedient  to  the  wisdom  of  the  just,  to 
make  ready"  (not  make  sorry)  "  a  people  pre- 
pared for  the  Lord."  (Luke  i.  16.) 

So  the  Baptist,  uttering  the  spirit  of  the  Law, 
which  was  half-way  to  the  Gospel,  urged  to  a 
mind  and  life  which  conformed  to  it.  And 
afterwards,  when  he  had  done  his  part,  Christ 


210  APPENDIX. 

took  up  the  self-same  word  and  theme 
metanoeite  !  and  carried  it  on  into  the  full  Gos- 
pel. The  last  note  of  the  law,  by  the  last  of 
the  prophets,  was  even  what  its  first  note  was. 
"  Reform !"  live  up  to  the  law — leave  the 
wrong — live  to  the  right!  And  when  the 
Gospel  took  up  its  sublime  movement,  its 
trumpet  rang  the  self-same  note  again,  and, 
this  time,  so  that  all  humanity  should  hear  it 
— "  Reform !"  The  idea  and  purpose  of  the  one 
were  only  more  magnificently  the  idea  and 
purpose  of  the  other — righteousness  of  life, 
genuineness  of  nature,  faithful  and  practical 
morality  of  heart  and  conduct. 

Read  /seravoerre,  metanoeite,  as  proclaimed  by 
the  lips  of  Jesus  in  the  light  of  His  teaching 
also ;  and  see  again  the  infinitely  practical  sig- 
nificance of  the  word.  Read  in  it  the  whole 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  in  which  the  law  was 
not  destroyed,  but  fulfilled.  Read  in  it  every 
precept  and  every  parable  pointing  to  the 
Christian  life,  uttered  in  the  teaching  of  the 
long  three  years  to  come  !  The  whole  weight 


APPENDIX.  211 

of  that  vast  morality  is  thrown  into  the  scale. 
Which  way,  then,  does  the  beam  turn  ?  towards 
the  emotion  on  this  side  of  the  "  changed  mind," 
or  towards  the  action  on  the  other  ?  So  great 
is  the  preponderance  of  the  latter,  that  we  are 
more  than  ever  impatient  of  a  word  which 
keeps  the  fact  and  its  telling,  captivating  lesson 
from  the  people. 

And  with  all  this  so  patent,  comes  the 
strangest  aspect  of  this  matter.  No  commen- 
tary within  my  reach  notices  regretfully  this 
inversion  of  meaning ;  hardly  any  notice  it  at 
all — and  no  one  of  them  suggests  the  necessity 
of  remedying  it.  Dean  Alford,  whose  elaborate 
Greek  Testament  is  so  full  of  fine  renderings, 
and  the  development,  sometimes,  of  the  almost 
incommunicable  force  and  subtle  distinctions  of 
the  original,  who  has  issued  three  different 
works  containing  suggestions  as  to  a  revision 
of  the  A.  V.,  never  even  pauses  at  the  word, 
fjLSTavoeiTs,  metanoeite,  but  leaves  the  "  Repent 
ye,"  we  are  so  familiar  with,  to  go  on  uttering 
its  vague,  uncertain  sound.  I  turn  to  a  score 


212  APPENDIX. 

or  more  of  versions  that  are  lying  around  me, 
and  can  cite  but  two  or  three,  among  them  all, 
that  make  or  suggest  an  alteration.  These 
exceptions,  and  eminent  ones  they  are,  will  be 
mentioned  further  on.  I  open  Archbishop 
Trench's  work  on  the  "  Synonyms  of  the  Greek 
New  Testament,"  where  so  many  admirable 
discriminations  appear,  and  fisravHiw,  metanoeo 
and  fj.sTctfjittu/jLat,  metamelomai  are  not  on  the 
list ;  at  the  end  of  the  book,  however,  in  a  brief 
supplementary  mention,  they  are  inserted,  and 
reference  is  made  to  a  Latin  extract  from  Bengel, 
in  the  appendix.*  But  this  extract  is  upon  a 

*  A  new  edition,  issued  siuce  the  above  was  written, 
contains  a  learned  and  elaborate  statement  of  the  question, 
and  in  entire  agreement  with  the  view  now  presented. 
"  Msravoeiv"  he  says,  "is  properly  to  know  after,  as 
-fid'sHsly  to  know  before,  and  fierd'soia.  «/?er-knowledge,  as 
•xpovota  /ore-knowledge  *  *  *  At  its  next  step  fj.srd.vota 
signifies  the  change  of  mind  consequent  on  this  after- 
knowledge  *  *  *  At  its  third,  it  is  regret  for  the  course 
pursued;  resulting  from  the  change  of  mind  consequent 
on  this  after-knowledge  *  *  *  Last  of  all  it  signifies 
change  of  conduct  for  the  future,  springing  from  all  this.'1 


APPENDIX.  213 

passage,  in  2  Cor.  vii.  8,  which  I  was  just  about 
to  cite  as  a  culminating  instance  of  confusion 
and  misconception  in  the  A.  V.  in  this  regard. 

lie  goes  on  to  say :  "  At  the  same  time  this  change  of 
mind,  and  of  action,  may  be  quite  as  well  a  change  for  the 
worse  as  for  the  better  j  there  is  no  need  that  it  should 
be  a  '  rescipiscentia'  as  well;  this  is  quite  a  Christian 
superaddition  to  the  word."  Certainly.  The  word  is  best 
defined  by  its  connection — the  nature  of  the  change  by  its 
circumstances, — a  set  of  bad  influences  and  ideas  coming 
upon  a  good  mind  and  a  good  life  may  produce  the  fierdvota, 
a  change  of  view,  disposition,  and  action. 

But  Archbishop  Trench  proceeds  :  "  It  is  only  after 
fjL£~avo'.a  has  been  taken  up  into  the  uses  of  Scripture  *  *  * 
that  it  comes  predominantly  to  mean  a  change  of  mind, 
taking  a  wiser  view  of  the  past,  a  regret  for  the  ill-done 
in  that  past,  and  out  of  all  this  a  change  of  life  for  the 
better  *  *  *  in  the  New  Testament  //eravoelv  and  p.srdvoia 
are  never  used  in  other  than  an  ethical  sense.  *  *  *  But 
while  they  gradually  advanced  in  depth  and  fulness  of 
meaning  (he  is  alluding  to  a  less  definite  classical  use),  till 
they  became  the  fixed  and  recognised  words  to  express 
that  mighty  change  in  mind,  heart,  and  life  wrought  by  the 
spirit  of  God  which  we  call  repentance,  the  like  honor  was 
very  partially  vouchsafed  to  p-era-nlketa  and  fisranlhaOai." — 
New  Testament  Synonyms,  p.  241,  §  Ixix. 


214  APPEXDIX. 

The  two  words  come  together,  and  no  wonder 
that  some  one  thought  it  high  tiino  to  dison- 
tangle  them  from  each  othor — "  For  though  1 
made  you  sorry  with  a  letter.  I  do  not  rtywf 
ptreif^ioftai  (mefamelomai,  regret),  though  1  did 
repent  /tfrajuexo^ijy  (metameJomSn.  regret).  *  * 
Now  I  rejoice,  not  that  ye  wore  made  sorry, 
but  that  ye  sorrowed  to  repentance  ^«rav»«av 
(metanoian,  reformation).  For  godly  sorrow 
worketh  repentance  furdvmav  (metanoiin.  roforma- 
tion)  unto  salvation,  not  to  be  repentetl  of 
afilrafi^mv  (ametamel^ion,  regretted). 

The  distinction  between  these  two  words  was 
evidently  thought  too  small,  by  the  translators, 
to  be  of  practical  account.  Their  own  inade- 
quate perception  of  the  chief  one  allowed  them 
to  admit  this  play  on  words,  without  any 
thought  that  it  was  losing  its  individual  force  or 

• 

significance.  And  as  it  is  here,  so  it  was  allowed 
to  be  throughout  the  New  Testament,  to  the 
unhappy  production  of  the  same  confusion  of 
meaning. 

It  is  time,  now,  in  order  that  the  distinction 


APPKNblX.  215 

may  \*>  more  than  ever  manifest,  to  find  out 
exactly  what  this  other  word,  rendered  "re- 
pentance," luraiitttia,  metameleia,  meanB.  It  IB 
compounded  of  //era,  meta,  after,  and  /«/u»,  w«'./£, 
signifying  "  care,  concern  ;"  //era,  weto,  gives  this 
"  care"  or  "  concern,"  an  after  character.  Con- 
cern for  an  event  "  to  come"  is  anxiety,  but 
concern  for  an  event  "past"  would  be  Borrow. 
MrcaiJ.{).tta,  metameleia,  therefore,  signifies  a 
cJianye  of  care,  a  returning  to  the  pa«t  with 
regret.  From  thin,  very  naturally,  proceeds 
the  occasional  meaning  of  a  change  of  one's 
judgment  on  past  points  of  conduct,  and  it 
mounts  into  a  mental  process,  which  may  have 
a  purpose  in  it,  and,  BO  far,  a  mind — but  a 
very  different  mind  from  the  we*,  now.  Where 
is  the  identity,  then,  with  (urdwia,  metan< 
They  occupy  two  different  spheres.  One  act» 
forward,  the  other  backward.  One,  turawuL, 
melanoia,  is  a  forward  movement  of  view  and 
disposition,  which  may  have  part  of  its  occa- 
sion in  a  backward  look  at  its  conduct,  and 
t  therefor,  but  may  also  be  induced  by  a 


216  APPENDIX. 

front  occasion  of  enlightenment  and  persua- 
sion. The  other,  juera/^/eta,  metameleia,  is  a 
backward  movement  of  care,  which  finds  its 
total  existence  in  the  regretted  thing  done, 
and  has  but  little  forward  movement,  intelli- 
gence and  fixedness  of  purpose.  When  it  has 
that,  it  becomes  the  other,  and  must  change 
its  name.  The  words  diverge  as  much  in  their 
use  and  application  as  the  English  words  "  re- 
morse" and  "reformation."  Bengel,  in  the 
extract  above  referred  to,  draws  the  distinction 
thus:  -l  >t~>i;<,:a.  metauoia,  belongs  properly  to 
the  understanding ;  ^sra/^/e.'a,  metameleio,  to  the 
will ;  because  the  former  expresses  the  change 
of  sentiment,  the  latter  the  change  of  care,  or 
rather  of  purpose.  *  *  *  *  M^a^/.^.a,  metameleia, 
is  generally  an  intermediate  term  and  chiefly 
refers  to  single  actions ;  but  /^rawta,  metanoia, 
especially  in  the  New  Testament,  is  taken  in  a 
good  sense,  denoting  the  repentance  which 
concerns  the  whole  life,  and.  in  some  respects, 
ourselves,  or  that  whole  blessed  remembrance 
of  the  mind,  after  which  suitable  fruits  follow. 


APPEXDIX.  217 

Hence  it  happens  that  ^rro>o£»,  metanoein,  is 
often  put  in  the  imperative;  ^-apskaOat,  me- 
tamelestJun,  never;  but  elsewhere,  wherever 
[UTd;ota,  metanoia  is  read,  /zcra/i£Uca,  metameleia, 
may  be  substituted,  but  not  vice  versa.''* 

Bengel's  distinction  is  made  on  a  review 
which  takes  in  the  use  of  the  words  in 
the  Septucymt,  which  is  more  indiscriminate 
than  the  use  in  the  New  Testament;  both 
words  being  put  indifferently  for  one  Hebrew 
word.  But  a  version  made  in  Egypt,  in  the 
time  of  the  Ptolemies,  three  hundred  years 
before  the  Christian  era,  cannot  be  perfect 
authority  for  a  usage  which  may  have  obtained 
a  whole  generation  after  the  Christian  era.  As 
Campbell  says,  "we  know  that  in  a  much 
shorter  period  than  that  which  intervened 
between  the  translation  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  the  composition  of  the  New,  some  words 
may  become  obsolete,  and  others  considerably 
alter  in  signification."  And  he  points  to  the 
A.  V.  as  an  instance  of  it,  where  (150  years  in 

*  Gnomon  on  2  Cor.  vii.  10. 


218  APPENDIX. 

his  time,  in  ours  250  years),  several  words  are 
antiquated,  and  others  bear  a  different  mean- 
ing now  from  what  they  did  then.* 

We  may  dismiss  the  Septuagint  then  from  the 
discussion  of  the  New  Testament  usage  of  these 
words,  especially  because,  to  quote  the  authority 
of  Campbell  again  (and  the  quotation  will  save 
a  citation  of  passages),  "  where  this  change  of 
mind  is  inculcated  as  a  duty,  or  the  necessity 
of  it  mentioned  as  a  doctrine  of  Christianity, 
the  terms  are  invariably  yueravoew,  metanoeo,  and 
(jLsrdvoia,  metanoia.  But  when  such  sorrow  is 
alluded  to,  as  either  is  not  productive  of  refor- 
mation, or,  in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  does  not 
imply  it,  they  are  never  used."f 

But,  to  return  to  the  distinction  between 
them :  Wm.  Webster,  in  his  "  Syntax  and 
Synonyms  of  the  Greek  Testament,"  thus 
draws  the  line  of  difference :  "  J/era/iWojucK, 
metamelomai,  alter  one's  purpose,  denoting 
change  of  feeling,  the  anxiety  consequent  on 

*  "  Gospels,"  I.  206,  207. 
f  Ib.  207,  208. 


APPENDIX.  219 

a  past  transaction,  remorse,  sometimes  imply- 
ing a  return  to  a  right  state  of  mind,  poenitet, 
piget.  jl/erdi/oew,  metanoeo,  change  one's  views 
for  the  better,  implying  the  sorrow  by  which 
sin  is  forsaken ;  Latin  resipisco,  recover  one's 
senses,  come  to  a  right  understanding.  Msrdvota, 
metanoia,  conversion,  the  sanctified  effect  of 
/uETa/^/eta,  metamehia,  or  godly  sorrow ;  Resipis- 
centia,  the  growing  wise.  Dr.  Wordsworth 
thus  expresses  the  difference :  Merdvoca,  me- 
tanoia, change  of  mind,  belongs  only  to  the 
good ;  fjLsrafishia,  metameleia,  pain  of  mind, 
belongs  to  evil  men,  as  well  as  good.  Peter 
nzravoit,  metanod,  as  well  as  //era^erac,  metameletai. 
Msrdvos-a),  metanoeo,  begins  with  ^era^/u^a,  meta- 
meleia, but  at  length  delivers  from  perantteta, 
metameleia,  whereas  ^eraju&efa,  metameleia,  with- 
out fterdvota,  metanoia,  continues  to  eternity."* 
I  believe  there  is  perfect  coincidence  and 
accordance  in  these  extracts  with  the  views 
set  forth  above.  And  when  such  weighty 
authorities  as  these  can  be  cited,  what  can  be 

*  Syntax  and  Synonyms  of  the  New  Testament,  221-2. 


220  APPENDIX. 


reason  of  the  silence  in  other  quarters  on 
the  subject  ? 

But  how  did  the  word  "repentance,"  for 
fjLsrd^ota,  metaiwia,  get  into  our  version  ?  Simply 
from  the  influence  of  the  Vulgate  and  other 
Latin  versions.  To  this  influence  not  a  few 
expressions  in  the  A.  V.  can  be  traced.  The 
Latin  was  almost  vernacular  to  scholars  at  that 
time,  and  it  was  as  natural  to  them  to  refer  to  a 
usage  in  that  tongue,  as  to  one  in  the  English. 
The  Vulgate  has  for  n—aws'trs,  metanoeite,  poeni- 
teiitiam  agite,  which  in  the  Douay-Rheirns  Bible 
is  rendered  "  do  penance,"  and  which,  a  foot- 
note says,  "  does  not  only  signify  repentance, 
and  amendment  of  life,  but  also  punishing  past 
sins  by  fasting  and  such  like  penitential  exer- 
cises." This  idea  of  "  punishment"  comes  from 
poena  the  root  of  the  word.  Out  of  "  penance" 
comes  "penitent,"  "one  who  is  penitent  or 
sorrowful  for  sin  ;  a  repentant"  (Worcester)  ; 
and  "penitence"  is  "the  state  of  being  peni- 
tent." In  the  Vulgate,  there  is  no  discrimina- 
tion between  ^erdvoia,  metanoia,  and  /^ra/^/u.'a. 


APPENDIX.  221 

metameleia,  as  we  might  well  suppose.  The 
English  word  has  thus  become  saturated  with 
the  idea  of  "pain."  "penalty,"  and  never 
suggests,  except  by  implication,  the  idea  of 
change  or  reformation. 

Beza,  in  his  Latin  version,  in  a  true  Protes* 
tant  spirit,  went  back  to  the  fountain  head, 
and,  in  trying  to  render  the  Greek  more  exactly, 
introduced  the  word  resipisco  for  //e-dvoetw,  me- 
tanoeo,  and  resipiscentia  for  //erdvota,  metanoia. 
In  this  the  surcharging  influence  of  "peni- 
tence," "  pain,"  suggested  by  the  Vulgate,  was 
eliminated  and  the  idea  of  the  Greek  word  was 
more  nearly  approached.  Beza  would  seem  to 
have  derived  t^-ravota,  metanoia,  from  /tero,  meia, 
and  aw.a,  cuioia ;  a*ma,  ctnoia,  want  of  under- 
standing, folly,  rashness,  heedlessness ;  a 
change,  therefore,  from  a  want  of  mind,  or  per- 
ception, a  return  to  one's  senses.  This,  Adam 
Clark  seems  also  to  prefer.*  Resipisco  (from  re 
and  sapere)  conveys  the  idea  of  a  "  return  to 
wisdom,"  and  might  be  made  to  mean  all  that 

*  Cf.  Comm.  in  loc. 
15 


222  APPENDIX. 


is  conveyed  by  ne-avow,  metanoeo.  It  was  a 
decided  divergence  from  the  Vulgate,  and  drew 
Beza  into  controversy  with  the  Roman  Catholic 
theologians  who  preferred  poenitentia  to  resipis- 
centia  because,  to  quote  Archbishop  Trench, 
"hallowed  by  long  ecclesiastical  usage,  and 
having  acquired  a  certain  prescriptive  right,  by 
its  long  employment  in  the  Vulgate."*  I  sup- 
pose a  change  of  "repentance"  to  some  word 
more  expressive,  would  be  resisted  now  in  some 
quarters  on  the  same  grounds.  But  Beza  could 
cite  ancient  ecclesiastical  authority  for  the 
change.  With  the  decided  influence  which  his 
Version  had  upon  Protestant  theologians,  his 
Greek  text  too  being  the  chief  reliance  of  those 
who  formed  the  A.  V.,  it  seems  strange  that 
the  equivalent  at  least  of  resipisco  was  not  put 
into  English.  Repent  does  not  represent  it, 
neither  "  mind"  nor  "  want  of  mind,"  are  sug- 
gested by  it,  but  it  would  seem  to  be  a  sort  of 
mild  rendering  of  the  Vulgate,  at  any  rate  be- 
traying its  influence  in  keeping  uppermost  the 

*  Authorized  Version,  52. 


APPENDIX.  223 

idea  of  penitence.  Repentance,  was  certainly 
never  born  of  ^sravota,  metanoia,  which  Beza 
always  renders  by  resipiscentia. 

" Poenitentia  is  at  fault,"  says  Trench,  "in 
that  it  brings  out  nothing  but  a  serious  dis- 
pleasure on  the  sinner's  part  at  his  past  life, 
and  leaves  the  changed  mind  for  the  time  to 
come,  which  is  the  central  idea  of  the  original 
word,  altogether  unexpressed  and  untouched."* 
And  yet  Trench  resists  the  alteration !  What 
then  is  the  force  of  re-poenitentia?  Nothing 
more,  it  seems  to  me,  than  "  repentance"  in  its 
ordinary  and  popular  acceptation. 

But  in  alluding  to  the  Vulgate,  and  its 
authority  for  such  a  strange  inversion  and  sup- 
pression (perhaps  want  of  development)  of 
the  meaning  of  /^ravoezre,  metanoeite,  we  have 
another  and  even  older  index  of  the  ancient 
meaning.  The  Syriac  Version, — the  oldest 
known  to  scholars,  written  in  the  very  language 
spoken  by  the  Baptist,  by  the  Saviour,  and  by 
the  people ;  a  rendering  back  from  the  Greek 

*  :;  Authorized  Version,"  52. 


224  APPENDIX. 

into  the  Aramaic,  and  not  unlikely,  in  this 
instance,  into  the  very  words  originally  spoken, 
is  uniform  in  preserving  the  distinction  between 
Reformation  and  Repentance.  Jthrdwstv,  mela- 
noein,  it  renders  (see  Campbell)  thub,  "  to  reform, 
to  return  to  God,  to  amend  one's  life;" 
metanoia,  thebutJia,  a  "reformation;" 
i,  metamelestliai,  is  rendered  tliua  "  to 
repent,"  "  to  be  sorry  for  what  one  has  done.* 

Nothing  could  be  more  satisfactory,  after  an 
analysis  of  the  Greek  words  themselves,  than 
this  almost  vernacular  evidence  of  their  primi- 
tive meaning.  The  two  languages,  one  born 
on  the  spot,  and  the  other  occupying  the 
country;  one  the  speech  of  its  people,  the  other 
the  dialect  of  their  Scriptures — unite  most  im- 
pressively here  to  condemn  the  Latin  intrusion. 
It  rouses  in  us  something  of  the  spirit  of  that 
ancient  people  to  be  rid  of  the  Roman  yoke, 
and  to  possess  our  heritage  free  of  such  alien 
repression. 

After  all  this,  we  may  be  allowed  to  wonder 

*  "  Gospels"  211. 


APPENDIX.  225 

at  the  indifference  of  theologians  to  such  an 
important  distinction — a  distinction  which,  if 
made,  -would  amount  almost  to  a  revelation  to 
the  people.  The  practical  effect  of  the  word 
"repentance"  when  representing  (lerd^oia.  meta- 
noia,  in  the  New  Testament,  is  to  give  a  fore- 
most consequence  to  "  penitence,"  and  to  keep 
its  possible,  but  all  requisite  result,  "amend- 
ment," in  the  background.  The  tendency  of 
the  popular  mind  is  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  the  first  design  of  the  Gospel  is  to  produce 
reformation  of  heart  and  life ;  and  this  unfor- 
tunate rendering  has  done  not  a  little  to  form 
that  general  misapprehension  as  to  the  end  and 
aim  of  the  Christian  religion,,  and  to  encourage 
that  mere  emotionalism,  in  which  so  much  of  the 
Christian  impulse  is  content  to  remain.  And  is 
it  not  occasion  enough  for  regret,  and  for  discus- 
sion too,  when  it  can  be  truly  said  of  this  ren- 
dering that,  from  the  initial  position,  and  fore- 
shadowing character  of  the  word,  it  affects  the 
distinctness  of  the  moral  system  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  does  not  adequately  suggest  the 


226  APPENDIX. 

ethical  character  of  the  Christian  Religion. 
But  give  fjLcrdfjio'.a.,  metanoia,  its  full  intrinsic 
force,  and  then  we  have  identically  that  divine 
change  which  John,  in  the  beginning  of  his 
Gospel,  with  such  characteristic  memory  and 
insight,  reports  as  the  early  call  of  Jesus  :  "Ye 
must  be  born  again."  Now  all  four  Gospels 
become  strikingly  and  vividly  accordant  at 
once.  They  all  utter  the  same  note.  Remark 
the  correspondence :  the  Baptist,  in  Mark  and 
Luke,  preaching  "the  Baptism  of  Reformation." 
JESUS,  in  Matthew,  "  Reform !  for  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  at  hand  !"  In  Mark — "  The 
time  is  fulfilled,  and  the  kingdom  of  God  has 
come,  Reform  !"  In  John — "  Except  a  man  be 
born  again  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of 
God  !"  In  Matthew — "  Except  be  ye  converted 
(i  e.  changed  into  something  else)  and  become 
as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  Nor  does  it  stop  here. 
Peter,  in  the  Acts,  cries  "Reform!  and  be 
baptized  every  one  of  you  for  the  remission  of 
sins."  "  Reform  (become  changed  in  mind), 


APPENDIX.  ^11 

therefore,  and  be  converted  (changed  in  life), 
that  your  sins  may  be  blotted  out."  Paul,  in 
Corinthians,  writes,  "  If  any  man  be  in  Christ 
he  is  a  new  creature,  old  things  are  passed 
away,  behold  all  things  are  become  new,"  and 
in  Ephesians — "  Be  renewed  in  the  spirit  of 
your  mind — put  on  the  new  man." 

Thus  the  whole  system  seems  to  have  been 
grasped  in  the  long  reach  of  its  first  great 
heralding  word,  and  becomes  from  beginning  to 
end  sublimely  consistent  with  itself. 

But  admitting  the  inadequacy  of  this  render- 
ing, as  many  may  be  ready  to  do,  the  question 
will  rise  how  to  change  it.  It  is  not  a  question 
whether  it  shall  be  changed  at  all,  as  one  might 
be  led  to  ask  in  view  of  the  probable  objections 
of  those  who  would  cling  to  it  as  it  is,  despite 
its  error,  solely  on  the  ground  of  its  long  use 
and  hallowed  association — the  Roman  Catholic 
reason,  as  we  have  seen  above,  against  the  Be- 
zan  departure  from  the  Vulgate ;  but  how  can 
it  be  changed  or  remedied  ?  The  word  "  Re- 
pentance" takes  its  inadequate  force  into  the 


228  APPENDIX. 

whole  literature  of  Christianity.  It  pervades 
Catechisms,  and  established  formularies  of  doc- 
trine, and  even  the  Prayer  Book  itself.  If  this 
difficulty  did  not  exist,  the  suggestion  of  Dr. 
Campbell  and  more  lately  of  Mr.  Robert 
Young,  might  be  adopted.*  They  prefer  the 
words  "Reform,"  "Reformation,"  for  the 
fisravo'.a,  metanoia,  leaving  "  Repent"  and  "  Re- 
pentance" to  stand,  where  they  represent  the 
idea  of  the  //era,  meta,  and  /^/da,  melo.  "  Imayine 
our  New  Testament  opening  with  the  clarion 
call  "  Reform  f"  and  the  whole  working  of  the 
Gospel  untechnically  declared  to  be  from  Bap- 
tism on,  as  unto  "Reformation,"  and  what  a 
new  association  and  vivid  interest  would  be 
awakened  !  how  much  more  grandly,  too,  would 
the  historic  event  and  spectacle  of  the  Glad 
Tidings  appear !" 

That  noble  Version,  "the  Genevan,"  of 
whose  singular  independence  and  wisdom  I 

*  Campbell,  Gospels,  I.  207.  "  The  Holy  Bible  trans- 
lated according  to  the  Letter  and  Idioms  of  the  Original 
Languages,"  by  Robert  Young,  Edinburgh,  in  loc. 


APPENDIX.  229 

have  had  occasion  to  speak  so  frequently  in 
the  preceding  pages,  renders  "Amend  your  / 
for  "  Repent  ye."  The  rendering  is  in  three 
words,  instead  of  one,  but  with  exactly  the 
same  meaning.*  As  a  single  word  is  the  more 
desirable,  "  Reform"  would  seem  on  the  whole, 
to  be  the  best  English  equivalent  for  t^ra-^e'.-^ 
metanoeite.  for,  if  it  leans  at  all,  it  leans  forward 
to  action,  and  not  backward  to  sorrow,  as 
"  Repentance"  certainly  does.  No  one  word  in 
our  language  can  exactly  represent  the  signifi- 
cant original,  and  therefore,  the  nearest  that  can 
be  found  ought  to  be  used,  and  then  a  glossarial 
foot-note  assign  and  limit  it  to  the  full  philologi- 
cal force  of  the  Greek.  The  word  "  Reform" 
carries  with  it  much  of  that  massiveness  and 
definiteness  of  meaning  which  belonged  to  the 
original  word  that  ushered  in  the  Gospel.  As 
denned  by  Worcester,  it  means  "  To  change 

*  In  Matt.  iii.  8.  "  Bring  forth  therefore  fruits  meet 
for  repentance,"  the  marginal  rendering  is,  "  answerable 
to  amendment  of  life."  Why  is  this  glimpse  of  the  true 
meaning  given  here  and  no  hint  of  it  repeated  elsewhere  ? 


230  APPENDIX. 

from  worse  to  better;"  "to  correct;"  "to 
amend ;"  "  to  restore ;"  "  to  reclaim"  (not  one 
allusion  to  "repent,"  by  the  way).  We  use 
the  word  of  individuals  when  they  have  turned 
from  some  especial  course  of  wickedness.  Any 
public  sentiment  which  looks  to  the  correction 
of  evils,  or  to  social  improvement,  or  to  a 
change  for  the  better  in  humanity,  is  known 
by  this  significant  name.  We  apply  it  to  the 
great  change  for  the  better  in  the  Church  three 
hundred  years  ago.  And  as  it  seems  to  me, 
when  we  consider  the  national  and  revolutio- 
nary significance  of  the  Baptist's  call  and  its 
individual  application  and  reception  together, 
we  could  not  find  a  word  so  instantly  and  com- 
pletely equivalent  as  this.  In  any  future  Ver- 
sion which  can  insulate  itself  from  theologies 
and  systems,  and  which  shall  seek  to  give  only 
the  independent  force  of  the  original,  this 
without  question  ought  to  be  the  rendering  of 
fierdvota,  metanoid. 

For  the  present,  and  until  some  such  radical 
alteration  be  demanded  and  listened  to,  it  ought 


APPENDIX.  231 

to  be  possible  to  reverse  entirely  the  present 
meaning  of  the  word  Repentance,  to  give  it 
arbitrarily  the  exact  force  of  fjisrdvota,  metanoia, 
and  of  reformation,  and  to  drop  out  of  it,  as 
much  as  can  be,  its  old  and  foremost  meaning. 
Let  it  become  absolutely  and  confessedly  tech- 
nical— objectionable  as  that  would  be — and 
hereafter  enter  the  dictionaries  as  such;  be 
defined  when  theologically  used,  as  "reform," 
"  change  of  mind,  of  character,  of  conduct,  of 
life,"  and  be  made  generally  synonymous  with 
"  reform."  And,  perhaps,  also  the  smaller  and 
easier  change  of  ^ra^hta,  mctameleia,  into 
"  regret"  (if  such  should  happily  come  in  a 
new  "Authorized  Version),"  may  leave  it  to 
utter  with  less  confusion  its  grander  meaning. 

T.  W. 


THE  END. 


PHILADELPHIA,  822  CHESTXCTT  STREET. 


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AMERICAN  ORNITHOLOGY;   or,  The  Natural  History  of  the 
L>ii  es.    Ill  as  t  rated  \viih  : 

and  colored  fro:.i  o:-u;iiu:'. 

ot"  the  li.  .:h(u-,  by  Georre  On!.  .  x.'itll 

r>o:uii.::r;e's  continuation,  conl  vy  of 

Birds  Inhabiting  the  Unit  ,\nl\v  \Vil    ai.  \,  it!i 

figures  drawn. 

Laden  Bonaparte.  (Prince  of  ,"•'. 
volumes,  imi 

carefully  colored  plates,  emhraeiir;  nearly  -,..O  li  :r.r.  - 
mostly  life  si7<  .  iv  bound  in  elo;    . 

silt  tops,  uiicut,  $iio.OJ;  half  Turkey  morocco,  uiarbicd  edges, 

..00. 
A  new  and  magnificent  edition  of  this  world-renowned  work,  printed  from 


this  work  lor  accuracy  of  dcscr. 

been  acknowledged.    D.ini.  1  \V*  :suf  it  in  Kiel 

ing  that  ot"  the  salt  water  birds,  mentioned  in  "Wil 

one,  and  compared  them  with  his  delineations  :  ...  d  ix 

•v  CASK  lound  them  PKI:I  .  ::.\TK  TO  N 

on  Quartrrly  Tfrrinpchara. 


a  specimen  of  American  book  maUinir.  it  l-.ns  never  iven  fur;    - 
the  low  prieo  it  H  now  offered,  should  bo  ia  every  public  and  private  . 
of  aii}'  pretensions. 

ELIZABETH  BARRETT  DROWNING. 

THE  POETICAL  "\VORICSOI-''  ELIZABETH  BARRETT  EROV.'X- 
ING.   Complete.   Printed  wills  ,ca  laid  111 

and  a  line  port  rait  on  steel.    T\vo  clc-T:-.:it  vclur.ics,  1 
$5.1.0;  h;:lf  t-alf,  «ilt,  CXtl    .       ,     :    ^ull  Turkey,  extra,    , 
crown  8vo  volume,  clotli,  extra,  C-1CO. 
The  poems  of  Mrs.  Browning  have  received  tne  encomiums  of  the  ablest 

authors  and  critics,  a:ul  have  u^ume.I 

tal  names  tliat  are  not  soon  tod i 

wrote  with  the  same  vigor  of  tlioujht,  united  with  such  del' 

ment Of  feeUnc.    Witli  many  she  is  decidedly  preferred  to  T 

while  she  has  the  same  happy  turns  of  expression,  and  pretty  conceits  of 

language,  sue  unites  more  strength,  and  character. 

A  CHARMING  WORK. 

MOTHER  GOOSE  IN  HER  NEW  DRESS.    A  Series  of  Charming 
Sketches,  bo.iutil'ully  eli:  .   vill 

create  a  sensation.    The  dislin  ilhorcss  dt 

ori3inal  of  this  v.-orlc  as  a  bu      -  .  v.-ho 

occupies  one  of  t'.jc  highest  positions  i:i  t::e  I'nited  : 
ornment,  l)'.:t  •  ::rs  h;:;  pcning  t>>  ^ei>  it  A. 

Struck  by  it  ;  r.u  rit  ;,  t'.'.:M 
Mother  Goose  never  '  ::arr.iiiv:  c 

sent  dross.    Cloth,  gilt,  beautifully  bound,  v.'ith  linen  gi. 
$1,50. 

CERVANTES. 

THE  HISTORY  AND  ADYrVITUrs  OF  DON  QUIXOTE  DE  LA 
liANCHA.  From  the  Spanish  ol  s.    \\'ith  six  full- 

illustrations,  by  Gustavo  Doru.    Largo  12mo, cloth,  extra,  fci.60. 


POUTER  &  COAXES'  PUBLICAT  - 


CHARLES  KNIGHT. 

HALF  HOURS  WITH  THE  P,F.ST  AUTHORS.    With  Short  Bio- 
graphical and  Cmi.-ul  No  gantly  printed  on  tin-  : 

r*i  nut*        \V  1 1 1»   fl»-^/.  i-  f  *-.,   1    •...•.t  «*  i  *-        o i. 


Saper.   With  fine  steel  portraits.    «  vuls.."<-iown  »\-o  ci.,- 
oardvgllt  tops,  £0.00;  half  calf,  gilt,  $l  •>.<;:>;  half  morocco  ellt 
18,00;  or  t  .,Un<l  in  8  vols.,  thick  crown  8vo,  fine  English 

cloth,  Lev.  boards,  gilt  tops,  per  set,  $7.^;  half  call,  gilt,  - 


B«lecting  Borne  choice  passage  of  the  best  standard  authors,  of  sufficient 
IPiijth  touccupy  half  an  hour  in  i:i  |,eru-i.l,  t.i.  i 
for  uvery  (J.iy  i.i  t.ie  year;  so  Ihatli  t..e  i/;;rc-liastr  will  ilevi .te  hut  o: 
honreacfi  day  to  its  appropriate  *•  k-cti<.n,  he  will  read  through  these  six 
volume's  in  :.d  in  such  a  leisurely  manner  tl::.: 

thoiiTMsffmany  of  t!ie  greatest  minds  will  be.  firmly  implanted  In  his  mind 
forever.  1\  r  <  v.-ry  Sund:iy  there  is  a  suitablu  seh-ctlon  from  some  ol  the 
most  eminent  writers  in  sucred  literature.  We  venture  to  say,  if  the  editor's 
Idea  M  rarr:"d  out.  t!ie  reader  will  possess  more  information  nnd  a 
knowledge  of  fie  K-I^INU  classics  at  the  end  of  the  year  than  he  wr.uM  by 
five  years  of  desultory  reading  The  rnrirty  of  n-ndint;  is  so  great  that  uo 
one  will  ever  tire  of  these  volumes.  It  is  a  library  in  itself, 

MISS  JANE  PORTER. 

Thefsvo  following  are  new  stereotype  editions.  In  large,  clear  type,  with 
tnitLU  letter  .'^c.   Tiie  in  re  "ilesigned 

expressly  lor  this  edition,  and  engraved  In  the  highest  style  of  art. 

TIIE  SCOTTISH  CHIEFS.    Illustrated  by  F.  O.  C.  Darley.   Crown 
,7*8  pp.     Fine  English  cloth,  gilt.     Price,  £1.50;  "half  calf, 
gilt, 

Walter  Scott,  In  a  conversation  with  King  George  IV,  In  the  library 
at   Carl  ton     1  .uu-il    l,...t   'Tue   bjottish   Cliiefu'   suggested   1m 

>•  Jfirtionary  of  Author*. 

'•TliU  is  a  new  and  !•>•  lur  V..-  :\  of  a  national  romance  which 

bas.hoen  m  mii'-:i  r -xd  and  admired  as  almost  any  of  Scott  s  or  Dickens' 
I'ovels.  It  M  low-priced,  well  printed,  and  handsomely  bound.  Thousand* 
of  readers  will  be  glad  to  go  over  this  stirring  tale  once  more."— Philadel- 
phia Insi. 

REGINA  MARIA  ROCHE. 

TUT:  rniLDREX  OF  THE  ABBEY,  illustrated  by  F.  o.  c.  DAE- 

,.    Uniform  with  "  The  Scottish  Chiefs."    Crown  Svo,  W6  pp. 
Fine  English  cloth,  gilt.    Price,  il.53;  half  calf,  gilt,  - 
"This  classic  Is  more  neatly  published  in  the  new  edition  than  we  have 
ever  seen  it.    It  was  long  a  standard,  and  had  more  favor  than  "r.iaddeus 
of  V/arsaw,'  and  it  deserved  better.    It  takes  a  new  lease  of  existence  now, 
and  W  almost  envy  those  who  read  it  for  the  tlrst  time."— Jfforth  American, 
Philadelphia, 

ROBERT  McCLURE,  M.D.,  V.S. 

THE  AMERICAN  GENTLEMAN'S  STABLE  GUIDE.     Contaln- 

in-c  a  l-':uniliur  Description  of  the  American  .stubl--;  th<-  m-.st 
approved  Method  of  Feeding,  Grooming,  and  General  Manage- 
ment (if  II  >r:-< -s;  to^'.'tlKT  with  Directions  for  the  Care  of 
Carriages,  Harness.  Ac.  Expressly  adapted  for  the  owners  ol 
equipages  and  fine  horses.  Cloth  extra,  illustrated,  $L50. 
A  handv  manual,  giving  to  the  owner  of  a  horse  just  the  Information  of 

a  practical  n..:r.rc  mat  lie  often  feeli  tic  need  of,  and  by  an  author  who 

thoroughly  understands  what  he  is  writing  about,  and  what  is  needed  by 

every  gentleman. 
"Such  a  treatise  has  been  needed  for  years,  and  we  think  this  volume  will 

supply  t  he  want.    The  illustrations  are  very  good  and  timely."— PMtburgk 

Daily  Gazette. 


PORTER  *  COATES  PUBLICATIONS. 


JOHN  J.  THOMAS. 

THE  AMERICAN  FRUIT  CULTURIST.  Containing  Practical 
Directions  lor  tin-  Propagation  and  Culture  of  Fruit  Trees  in 
the  Nursery,  Orchard,  acid  Garden.  "\Vith  inscriptions  ot  the 
Principal  American  and  Foreign  Varieties  cultivated  in  the 
United  States.  Si-coud  edition.  Illustrated  with  -H»  ac'-urate 
figures.  Crown  8vo.  Cloth  extra,  bev.  bds.,  gilt  back.  t-'i.iA). 
We  IKIVO  read  hundreds  of  criticisms  on  this  hook,  nml  they  unanimously 

pronounce  it  the  most  CAoroupA, proftteot,  and  comprrAmriwework  puiilNln  d, 

Tii"  engravini:-!  an-  not  copies  ol'  old  cuts  from  other  books,  but  are  mainly 

original  with  the  author. 

J.  H.  WALSH,  F.R.C.S.  ("Stonehenge.") 

THE  HORSE  IN  THE  STABLE  AND  THE  FIELD;  his  Manage- 
ment hi  Health  and  Disease.  From  the  last  London  edition, 
-,vith  copious  Notes  and  Additions,  by  ROBEKT  Mcl'Lvui:,  M.D.. 
Y.S.,  author  of  "Diseases  in  tin;  American  Stable,  Fit-Id,  and 
Farm-yard,"  with  an  Essay  oil  the  American  Trotting  Horse, 
and  suggestions  on  the  Breeding  and  Training  of  Trotters,  by 
EI/LWOOD  HAUVKY,  M.l>.  With  so  engravings,  and  full-page 
engravings  from  photographs  from  lite.  Crown  Svo.  Cloth, 
extra,  bev.  bds. 

"This  Americanizing  of 'Stonehenge'  gives  ns  the  best  piece  of  Horse 
Literature  of  tho  season.    Old  horsemen  need  not  be  told  who  •  JSton. 
is  in  the  British  Books,  or  that  he  is  the  highest  authority  in  turf  ami 
nary  nfiairs.     Add  to  these  the  labors  of  such  American  writers  as  J)r. 
McClure  and  Dr.  Harvey,  with  new  portraits  of  some,of  our  most  popular 
living  horses,  and  we  have  a  book  that  no  American  horseman  can  afford 
to  be  without."—  Ohio  Kirnicr,  Cleveland.  April  24. 

'•  It  sustains  its  claim  to  be  the  paly  work  which  has  brought  together  In  a 
single  volume,  and  in  clear,  concise,  and  comprehensive  lanuuaire.  ad'-<a.K;to 
information  on  the  various  subjects  of  which  it  treats."—  Harder' t  Magazine, 
July,  ISIMI. 

THADDEUS  NORRIS. 

AMERICAN  FISH  CULTURE.  Giving  all  the  do-tails  of  Artificial 
Breeding  and  Rearing  of  Trout,  Salmon,  Shad,  and  other 
Fishes.  12mo,  illustrated.  $1.75. 

'"Norris's  American  Fish  Culture'  published  in  this  city  by  Porter  A 
Cqates,  is  passing  around  the  world  as  a  standard.  Mr.  Norris's  authority 
will  be  quoted  beside  the  tributaries  of  the  Ganges,  as  already  by  those  of 
the  Hudson,  the  Humber,  and  the  Thames.  The  Kimlish  publishers  of  the 
book  are  Sampson  Low,  Son  &  Co.;  and  a  late  number  of  the  Athcrueum, 
after  an  attentive  review  of  Mr.  Norris's  methods,  concludes  thus:  -;Mr. 
Norris  has  rendered  good  service  to  the  important  subject  offish-culture  by 
the  present  publication:  and,  although  his  book  goes  over  ground  (or water 
rather)  occupied  to  a  great  extent  by  Knelish  writers  on  lisli  culture,  it  eon- 
tains  several  particulars  respecting  this  art  as  practised  in  Die  t'nited 
States,  which  are  valuable,  and  may  he  turned  to  profitable  account  by  our 
pisciculturists.'  "—fhiladelphia  Evening  £uiutin. 

THE  AMERICAN  ANGLER'S  BOOK.     Embracing  the  Natural 
History  of  Sporting  Fish,  and  the  Art  of  Taking  Them.    "NVith 
Instructions  in  l-'ly  Fishing,  Fly  Making,  and  Rod  Making; 
and  Directions  for  Fish  Breeding.    To  which  is  added  Dies  Pis- 
catpria?;  describing  noted  fishing  places,  and  the  pleasure  of 
solitary  fly  fishing.    New  edition,  with  a  supplement,  contain- 
ing a  Description  of  Salmon  Rivers,  Inland  Trout  Fish  HILT.  A-C. 
Illustrated  with  eighty  engravings.    8vo,  cloth  extra.    &3.5U. 
"Mr.  Norris  has  produced  the  best  book  on  Angling  that  has  been  pub- 
lished in  our  time.    If  other  authors  would  follow  >lr.  Norris's  example, 
and  not  write  upon  a  subject  until  they  had  practically  mastered  it,  wo 
should  have  fewer  and  better  works.  Ills  volume  will  live.  It  is  thoroughly 
instructive,  good-tempered,  and  genial."— Philadelphia  Pre*t, 


PORTER    &    rOATES*    I'V r,T.Ic.\Tin\S 


OLIVER  BUNCE. 

ROMANCE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  Bein?  true  Stories  of  the 
Thrilling  Adventures,  Romantic  Incident*,  Hair-breadth 

Escapes  :m:l   Heroic  Exploit*  Of  the  ."-;.     Laid   ] 

with  six  iliustratious.    l(3rno,  cloth,  extra. 

"U'hile  the  principal  events  of  the  history  of  our  glorious  Revolution  are 
known  to  every  imelli;,'cul  American,  much  rciiK.  lu.,ed  of  the 

inner  history  of  the  w.ir,  and  the  motives  and  |  •  eople. 

There  were  deeds  of  Individual  during,  her... 
of  i  ;  recce  and  Home,  dashing  and  hazardous  <• 
bravely  borne,  performed  by  subalterns  and  private  soldiers  in  tin 
army  <jf  heroes,  which  should  never  be  forgotten.    To  collect  and  pr. 

tches  of  these  almo  tforpotten]  :  lie  war,  as  they  originally 

I  In  the  newspapers  acid  private  letters  of  i.anil 

the  stories  told  by  -  rans  round  the  blazing  hearth 

i  :  lias  been  the  object  of  this  work,  and  the  publishers 
are  confident  that  none  will  ri<<-  from  its  perusal  without  acknowledging 
that  "  Truth  is  strani'-r  t  Man  ficiion,"  and  with  a  deeper  feeling  of  reverence 
for  the  heroes  of  the  days  of  '  7i> 

CECIL  B.  HARTLEY. 

LIFE  OF  THE  EMPRESS  JOSEPHINE,  Wife  of  Napoleon  I. 
"\Vilh  a  fine  Port  rait  on.  Steel.  ICmo.  Printed  on  fine  laid  paper. 
Cloth,  extra,  il.50. 

"Her  career  and  her  character  were  alike  remarkable;  surrounded  by 
the  ili-  t..f  the  l-'ren:-h  d  ..  K<>ia:.n  matron  in  stern 

rectitiKlo,  win  a  pro-eminent  fld 

compr  ih  a  warm  heart  and  a  noble  ; 

Bhe  was  de  peer  of  Napoleon,  and  In  some  i 

cutive  •   her  fores!:;'.:!  w::<  great    r.      Iti-s  to  her  that  the 

index  S    :ioleon 

got  a  i!  i  lier  because  he  wisln  d  his  seed  to  inherit  the  French 

Crown.  >ra  of  hto  Hapobnrg  marr  :ie  the 

'u  of  Josephine  now  weara  t::c  purple  of  Fr:uife—  this  is  m<  r 
poetic  justice.    *    *    *    In  the  book  before  us,  the  story  of  her  life  Is  told  In 
•!e.  nnd  possesses  a  fascination  rarely  met  with  In  bio- 
graphy.''— Chicapu  Evening  Journal. 

MRS.  ANNA  JAMESON. 

LIVES  OF  CELEBRATED  FEMALE  SOVEREIGNS  AND  IL- 
LrsTtllDt"^  Wn.MiiX.  I-Mii.'il  l>v  Mary  K.  Hewitt.  With 
four  portraits  <>n  sto-1.  IGmo,  beautifully  printed  on  laid  paper. 
Cloth,  extra,  il.oO. 

The  celebrated  Mrs.  Jameson,  who  wields  a  powerftil,  readv,  and  pleasant 
pen,  has  taken  hold  of  some  of  the  leading  events  in  tho  brilliant 
some  of  the  most  world-noted  women,  and  depicted  tlvm  in  very  attracl 
colors.    It  is  a  lovely  book  for  young  ladies,  and  will  give  tnem  a  taste  for 

history. 

J.  H.  MERLE  D'AUBIGNE. 

HISTORY   OF  THE    GREAT    REFORMATION   OF   THE   SIX- 

::.VTI1     CENTURY,    in     Germany.    Switzerland,    *  ranee, 

England*-.    Five  volumes  iu  one.    Royal  8yo,  8o3  pp.    \\itu 

LO  ,  •n-ravin-s  on  ste.-l.  and  n  superb  ])ortr:iir  «.t  th 
$5.00;  sheep,  library  style,  Wi.OO;  hail'  calf,  antique, 


Now  tlmt  the  dosrtnaof  InfaUihlllty  of  thn  P"r«  ^J^f?  JS™ 

.i-min,'   history  of  simil:.  v.  r   llir-.;  huii.lr  .     > 

ac.mires  a  new  interest.    The  narrative  is  so  picturesquely  told,  it  h»a  allll 
attractions  of  a  romance. 


PORTER  &  COATES'  PUBLICATIONS. 


MARGARET  HOSMER. 

Author  of  "Chcrrv.  t:-,o  rrrMomr*-."  "Ornndma  rrcrritfs  Stories,"  "The 
Voyage  of  the  \VLite  I'alcon,"  <£c.,  <tc. 

LITTLE  HOSIE'S  FIRST  PLAY  DAYS.  Illustrated.  ISmo.,  IGO 
pp.,  75  cents. 

LITTLE  ROSIE'S  CHRISTMAS  TIMES.  Illustrated.  ISmo.,  ICO 
pp.,  75  cents. 

LJTTLE  ROSIE  IN  THE  COUNTRY.  Illustrated.  ISmo.,  ICO  pp. 
75  cents. 

"  Very  nice  children's  books,  indeed,  and  we  only  wish  that  we  had  more 
epnce  to  say  so,  and  more  time  to  say  it  in.  Any  present-giving  lathers, 
mothers,  uncles,  aunts,  brothers,  or  sisters,  who  have  a.  care  for  tho  little 
people,  may  safely  order  these  for  home  cousumptiou."— The  Jfartjoi-ti 
Churchmtin. 

"A  charming  series  of  stories  for  the  younger  class  of  readers,  full  of  In- 
teresting incidents  and  good  moral  and  religious  instruction,  brouui-t 
to  the  comprehension  of  a  child  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  a  s..lutary  im- 
pression. They  are  calculated  also  to  touch  parents  how  t.ikop  children 
employed  in  what  is  pleasant  and  use  i:l,  thus  superseding  t!:o  nect 
Imposing  so  many  restraints  tokeip  tl.f.a  from  ev.I.  Tills  Is  apt  to  be  tho 
great  fault  in  the  management  or  children.  T.'-.oy  are  piven  nothing  inno- 
cent and  useful  with  which  to  employ  their  active,  restless  minds,  nr.d  then 
parents  wonder  that  they  need  benlways  in  mischief.  Jtosie's  moth'  r  better 
comprehended  the  wants  of  ft  child,  an-1  forestalled  temptations  to  cud  by 
incentives  to  good."—  Springfield  Daily  Union. 

UNDER  THE  HOLLY;  or,  Christmas  at  ITopoton  Gringo.  A 
Book  for  Girls.  By  MRS.  JTJoSJfJtB  and  Mua .  liiino.  Illus- 
trated. ClOth,  extra,  -A.M. 

"  And  this  we  can  and  do  most  confidently  recommend  to  parents  who  are 
faithfully  striving  to  provide  only  wholesome  lood  lor  t..c  intellectual  appe- 
tite of  tlicir  children.  The  tone  of  the  book  is  pure  and  healthful,  the  style 
.'1  graceful ,  and  tlie  incidents  are  such  as  to  pive  pleasure  without  :it 
all  kindling  the  passion  for  exciting  fiction,  which  is  so  rurupuut  among  the 
young  people  of  our  day.''— Muryland  Church  Jircoril. 

"This  Is  entitled,  'A  Book  for  Girls,'  hut  it  would  interest  the  youth  of 
either  sex.    It i'  a  succession  of  tales  told  at  the  Christmas  season.     V. 
recommend  them  all  for  their  interest  nnd  moral.    It  Is  for '  children  of  • 
lirror  growth,'  not  a  mere  story-book  lor  the  little  oue3."—2>hiladcljjhia 
Daily  Age. 

LENNY,  THE  ORPHAN;  or,  Trials  and  Triumphs.  Illustrated, 
by  Faber.  IGmo.  Price,  cl.'Jo. 

"  A  story  hook  of  nn  orphan  hoy.  who  Is  thrown  loos«  npon  the  world  by 
a  conflagration.  i:i  w.iicii  l.is  niu'lht  r  nnd  only  surviving  parent  is  burnt. 
Tin-  varieties  of  experience,  both  porrowiul  and  happy,  through  which  tiie 
boy  passes,  ore  wrought  up  Into  a.  story  of  no  little  power,  and  \  •  t  ;> , 
as  often  occu-  in  actual  life.    The  religious  teachings  of  the  book  are  good, 
ond  penetrate  the  entire  structure  of  the  story.     \Ve  rprommend 
dially  to  a  place  Lu  the  Sunday-school  library."— ^'ajitUij/-A'./«xyi  Tunes,  Phila- 
delphia. 

"The  author  of  this  book  has  written  some  of  the  best  Sunday-school 
bnoks  which  have  rei-i-ntly  boen  issued  from  the  press  of  tho  American  Sun- 
day School  I'nion.  The  volume  beiowms  portrays  Ihetrlals  of  a  litl 
w!io  loses  his  mother  in  eanv  IKe,  and  is  subjected  to  the  Intricnesof  a  de- 
{  person,  from  which  he  o'lluins  a  luippy  deliverance.  Tliectoryla 
well  planned  and  written,  and  its  mural  and  religious  lessons  are  good."— 
WeeJcty  freedman,  Kew  Bruiiswick,  JX.  J. 


PORTER  A  COATES'  PUBLICATIONS. 


JAMES  HOGG,  the  Ettrick  Shepherd. 

THE  MOUNTAIN  HARD  AX:>  F<  Hir.sT  MIXSTRr.U   legendary 
Bongs  and  Ballads.    \\'ii,i  i\v«>  lino  < 

clota,  i) )  r.'iit.s;  illuminated  bide,  00  cxuU;  Turkey  inor.,  U.5J. 
"  He  U  a  poet,  in  the  highest,  acceptation  of  the  uame."— Lord  Jeffrey. 

PERCY  BYSSHE  SHZLLEY. 

POETICAL  WORK*.     With  a  fine   engraving   on  steel.     "Cmo, 
cloth,  (JO  cents ;  illumiuated  side,  9J  cents ;  Turkey  mor., 


ROBERT  BLOOMFIELD. 

THE  FARMER'S  F,OY,  and  other  Poems.  Illustrated  withafln«> 
engraving  on  steel.  3Jmo,  cloth,  00  cents;  illuminated  bide, 
OJ  cents;  Turkey  morocco,  $1.00. 

"Few  compositions  in  the  English  language  have  boon  so  generally  ad- 
mlred  as  the  Farmer's  B»y.    Tuosu  wliu  ugrved  lit  but  liuie  (i.e.  i:i  ; 
11  in  ter-<.  wen-  unanimous  i'\  t'M>  commendation  of  me  po-  tlral  pr,\v  . 

!  \>y  the  peasuiu  uud  juurmyuiau  mecUuuic.'  —Allibone's  JJicliunary 

ROBERT  BURNS. 

POETICAL  WORKS.     With  a  fine  engraving  on  steel.     32mo, 

cloth,  00  cents ;  illuminated  side,  00  ci  tits ;  T  urkey  mor.,  $1.0 J. 
"  B-irns  is  by  far  the  rreatest  poet  that  evcrsprang  from  the  bosom  oftho 
peo;;l.',  :ind  lived  and  died  in  an  humblo  condition.  Indeed,  no  country  in 
tho  wrrld  but  f;cotla:;d  f>ul  I  have  j-rodnced  Euoh  ixman;  and  he  will  bo 
firev  r  r  "rirded  nit  he  glorious  representative  of  1hOGC"lnsoI  hH  country. 
II  u  was  bom  ai>oet.  it'  ever  uiau  was."— /Vo/.  M'iison'M  Lstay  on  Hurra. 

WILLIAM  DODD,  LL.D. 

THE  CEAITTIES  OF  SIIAKSPEARE.  From  the  lust  London 
edition,  with  large  additions,  and  the  author's  latest  correc- 
tions. With  two  flne  engravings  on  steel.  Fine  edition,  on 
toned  paper,  with  carmine  border.  Square  21mo.  cloth,  gilt 
cd-  :  32mo,  cloth,  00  cts. ;  illuminated  side, 

irkcy  morocco,  tl.50. 

Thn  r^tinbUcition  of  n  book  ST  universally  and  deservedly  popular  M 
Dodd's  Beauties,  makes  it  peculiarly  valuable  us  a  giU  book. 

THOMAS  HOOD. 

POETICAL   AVOHirS.     With  a  flne  engraving   on  steel.    32mo. 

Cloth, OJcts.;  illuminated  side,00cts.;  Turkey  morocco,  ?!. 
"Hood's  verse,  whether  serious  or  comic,— whether  serene,  like  a  cloud- 
less autumn  evening,  or  s;>.  rliling  with  puns  likeaf  rosty  January  mid:d; 

wit'.i  stars,— was  ever  pregnant  with  materials  for  thought l.!l:o 

every  author  distinguished  for  true  comic  humor,  there  was  a  deep  vein  or 
melancholy  pathos  running  through  his  mirth  :  and  even  when  Ins  sun 
shone  brightly,  its  light  seemed  oiten  reflected  as  if  only  over  the  run  ol a 
cloud. — Jj.  JUtJtoir, 

THOMAS  MOORE. 

THE    MORAL    AXD    REAUTiFUL    FROM    THE    POEMS    OF. 
Edited  bv  lii-:v.  VV'ALTEH  COLTON,  author  of  "  Deck  :.nd  1'ort,' 
&C..&C.  'With  a  lino  engraving  on  st(d.    32mo.    Cloth,  CJ  cts.; 
illuminated  sides,  <JJ  cto.;  Turkey  morocco,  tl.6J. 
"The  combinations  of  his  wit  nro  wonderful.    Quick,  subtle,  nnrl  varied, 
ever  su-^gesiing  new  tUougutaor  i:nr«';ei.  ur  unexi 
— :i  .w  dr'.uvi:r,'  resources  iron  classic  d  literature  c^r  ol  the  ancient  lJ 
nowdiviirr  into  the  human  heart, and  nowsklmmin  urey— . 

witor  i  .  Jloore  (.or  they  are  compounded  ""^ ''^"Vii^  J 

Ariel,  •  a  eroatnre  of  the  el-meats,'  that  is  ever  buoyant  and  lull  of  lUe  and 
Bpirit."— Chambers' a  £ng.  Lit. 


10  PORTER    &    COATKS'    PI  ni.K'ATK  >NS. 

MISS  H.  B.  McKEEVER, 

Author  of  "The  Flounced  Kobe,  and  What  it  C  >*t,"   Kdith's  Ministry," 
WoudtUiOe,"  "Silver  Tiireada,"  »tc.,  «icc. 

These  stories  have  the  merit  of  being  entertaining,  instructive,  .and  really 
uperior  to  the  comoiuii  run  ui  J 

.:  it-lent  authority.  prono;:.  l.iu  LieatTuud  luUidBumeM 

Juvenile  Books  oi  Hie  season.  "  —  Lyuius  J{<  publican. 

-  M  -Keever  always  writes  witli  point  ami  meaning,  arid  in  a  manner 
to  gain  aud  hold  the  utleiiUuii."—  Sunday-School  1  tint*. 

ELEANOR'S  THREE   BIRTHDAYS.    "Charity  seoketh  not  her 
own."    Illiutraied.    lomo.,  -*.M  IT.,  fl.OO. 

MARY    LESLIE'S    TRIALS.    "Is  not  easily  provoked."     Illus- 
trated.   IJmo.,  Sl.oj. 


LUCY  FORRESTER'S  TRIUMPHS.    "Thinkcth  no  evil,  believ- 
ull  things,  hopetli  all  things."    Illustrated.    IGmo.    Price, 

R.  M.  BALLANTYNE. 

New  and  beautiful  editions  of  these  world-renownrd  books,  second  only 
to  those  of  Cooler  aud  Jiarryatt,  and  betti  r  tii...  Mayne  Held, 

in  tin.-  picairo.s  presented  to  the  reader  of  wil.l  li.o  among  tin-  in.i::.ns.  tno 

-  und  fierce  delights  of  a  huiitiT^'  hlc,  and  tin1  ] 

''lAi<-  on  the  Ocrun  Wavi1."    IJullantync's  iiunic  is  wi-11  kno\\n  to  t  \  i  ry 
Intelligent  boy  of  spirit.     Leading  the  reader  into  the  Jungles  ;u:<l 
of  Ames,  sweeping  over  the  vast  expanse  of  our  western  rrairics.  "last  in 
the  io'  ar  regions,  or  coasting  the  sliores  of  sunny  clinics,  lie 

ever   presents   ne-.v   and  enchanting   pictu:  :tnre  ur  li'-auty  to 

i  t!ie  nttent  ion.  absorb  the  interest,  excite  the  leeliugs,  and  always 
at  t  lie  same  time  Instructing  the  reader. 

THE  GORILLA  HUNTERS.    A  Tale  of  the  Wilds  of  Africa.   ICmo. 

illustrated,  <•!<>;  !i,  extr.i.  -1.-J3. 
"Thoroughly  at  home  on  subjects  of  adventure.    Like  all  his  stories  for 

hoy>,  thrilliii!?  iu  interest  and  abounding  in  incidents  of  every  kind."—  Tlie 
Quiver,  London. 

THE  DOG  CRUSOE.    A  Tale  of  the  Western  Prairies.    IGmo,  illus- 
trated, cloth,  extra, 

"This  is  another  of  Jlr.  B.illantync's  excellent  stories  for  the  youiiT. 
They  are  all  well  written,  fall  of  romuniic  .  .•!  uie  "t  uoi 

ful  moral  tendency;  on  tiie  contrary,  tin  y  jin-  iir.  inbody 

sentiments  of  true  piety,  manliness  and  virtue."-  Jnvi  rnrss  Advn  I. 

GASCOYNE.   THE    SANDAL-WOOD   TRAPER.     A  Tale  of  the 

Pacific.    ICmo,  illustrated,  cloth,  extra,    . 

"'Gascoyne'  will  rivet  t'io  attention  of  every  one,  whether  old  or  young, 
who  pursues  H."—  Edinburgh  (,'ourunt. 

FREAK'S  ON  THE  FELLS;  or.  Throe  Months'  Rustication.    And 
why  I  did  not  become  a  Bailor.    Illustrated,  Limo,  cloth,  extra, 
Sl.iS. 
"  3Ir.  Ballantyno's  namo  on  the  title-page  of  a  hook,  has  for  some  ye/.rs 

been  a  guaranty  to  buyers  that  the  volume  i.s  cheap  at  its  price."—  London 


TIIE  WILD  MAN  OF  Tin:  WEST.    A  Tale  of  tho  Ro.-ky 
tains.    ICmo.    Illustrated,  eloih,  exiia,  .. 

•<  cenerally  considered  .'iantr'nc's  famous  nnrra- 

'  Indian  warfare  and  border  h:e.    In  this  U  miiv  io 

Coopc-r. 

ijlIIITING  WINDS.    A  Story  of  tin-  Sea.    Cloth,  extra,  illustrated. 


PORTER    &    COATES'    Prr.I.irATI"'  11 

R.  M.  BALLANTYNE— Second  Series. 

"Indulgent  fathers  and  cornl  nudes  will  look  a  Ion:*  tiin»  before  they  will 
find  book*  more  interesting  or  Instructive  i'ur  hi.yst.mn 
volumea  the  author  introduces  i. 
regions,  the  wild  bunting-ground  :.ipany  tin-  • 

.t:id  midnight  sun  ot  Norway,  and  the  e\ci; 
of  the  deep  on  tin1  pathless  lidds  of  tin'  ocean.     1 1 

md  has  the  (acuity  of  taking  t.:e  bo\  - 
him  in  his  narrative,  and  making  them  fed  at  hi. in.-  i:i 

V  c  Information  and  to  inculcate  sound  principles  of  virt 
lie  miimlcs  en   ugh  of  fancy  with  the  fact  and  the  moral  li 
more  Impressive  and  the  more  sure  to  be  remembered.    The  iM,y  wh  . 
ilumcs  at  the  time  when  his  mind  is  mi^t  susceptible  i 

•  I  and  adventure,  will  cultivate  a  taste  li.r  >• 
ite   works  of  travel  und   discovery,  in   mature   \ 
March,  D.D. 

FIGHTING  TTTi:  WHALES;  or,  Doings  nml  Dangers  on  n  Fishing 

Cruise.     With  lour  mil-page  Hhist  ration*.     IMIIM.,  Illu.-i : 
7">  '-ruts. 

AWAY    IX   THE   WILDEUXESS;  or,  Lifo  Among  the  Red  In- 
dians and  l-'nr-TnuU-r.s  ui' North  America.     ISmo.,  Illuxt: 

..  I'xtra,  ~'i  cents. 
It  is  one  of  (lie  most  delightful  books  this  famed  author  has  written. 

-.bin;;  the  exciting  adventures  of  Indian   1. 
and  attractive  Information  about  the  lar  north  portion  ol'our  CD; 

in,  if  ever,  has  there  been  a  better  description  of  life  in  the  lands  of 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  than  is  1'ouud  in  this  little  work. 

FAST  IX  THE  ICE;  or.  Adventures  in  the  Polar  Regions.    ISmo. 

Illustrated.     •  loth,  extra,  7">  cents. 

"  Is  attractive  and  useful.  There  is  no  more  practical  way  of  communi- 
cating e!>Mnontary  information  than  that  which  lias  been  adopted  in  li»i» 

Mined  iii  i ;  i 
such  Information  as  men  of  fair  eiuc.iticu  - 

INimimaux.   music-oxen,   bears,   walv. 

with  all  the  ordinary  incidents  of  an  Arctic  voyage,  woven  iu'o  a  clear  <''>n- 

narrative.  we  must  admit  that  a  K"od  work  has  been  done,  and  that 

theau;!i'.r  deserves  tlie  gratitude  of  young  people  of  all  classes.'  —London 

At/ni." 

CIIASIXG  THE  SUX;  or,  Rambles  in  Norway.  18mo.  Illustrated. 

Cloth,  extra,  ~~>  cent-. 

Describing  a  country  almost  new  to  u<«,  the  author  tolls  of  many  strange 
natural  curiosities,  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  p<H>r>le,  and  the 
curious  modes  of  travel  and  conveyance. 

ANNE  BOWMAN. 

THE  BEAR  IIUXTERS  OF  THE  ROCKY  MorXTAINS.     16mo. 

Illustrated.    Cloth,  extra, 

A  story  of  trapper  life  in  the  Kooky  Mountains.  A  bett<  r  Insight  of  real 
life  in  these  uncivilized  wild  <  is  gained  from  books  like  this  than  from  scores 
of  the  dry  details  of  travellers. 

ADVENTURES   IX   CAXADA;   or,  Life  In  the  Woods.     16mo. 

Illustrated.    Cloth,  ?!.- •'•. 

This  is  not  n,  mere  work  of  fiction,  but  the  true  narrative  of  .1  bright  hoy  who 
rou-hed  it  in  the  bush  when  Canada,  tin-  h< 

ich  wilder  than  it  is  now.    The  boys,  especially,  w  .  with 

the  adventures  with  Indians,  bears,  and  w,  -n  hunts  and  duck 

shootiii""  while  the  old^r  class  of  readers  wiil  be  drawn  to  it  by  !H  charm- 
ing description  of  t  he  scenery,  and  condition  of  what  may,  before  long,  be- 
come a  part  of  the  United  states. 


12  PORTER    &    COATES'    PUBLICATIONS. 


FOSTER'S  TRANSLATION. 

THE  THOUSAND  AND  ONE  NIGHTS;  or  The  Arabian  Nights' 
i:iiuTtu:iK.u'iit.  A  new  edit. on.  \\  iih  eight  lull-page  illustra- 
tions. Large  l.'mo,  cloth,  extra,  Cl.OU. 

"M  >ro  widely  diffused  among  ihe  nations  of  the  earth  than  any  o'.hcr 
product  of  t:ie  human  mind.    While  it  is  ivud  or  r.  cited  to  crowds  c 
listeners  In  the  Arab  coffee-houses  of  Asia  and  Airicn,  it  i-s  y.i-i  r.  ;  eager. y 
perused  on  the  banks  of  the  Tagus,  the  Tiber,  the  Setae,  the  Than 
Hudson,  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Uang-'R.    ,    .    .    While  tliero  are  children 
on  earth  to  love, so  Jong  will  the  'Arabian  Nights'  be  loved." — Ajwlcttm's 
American  Encyclopedia,  article  "^iraliiun  JXiy/its." 

D.  W.  BELISLE. 

THE  AMERICAN  FAMILY  ROBINSON ;  or  The  Adventures  ot 
a  Family  lost  in  the  Great  Desert  of  the  West.  IGino.  Illus- 
trated. Cloth,  extra,  $1.25. 

DANIEL  DE  FOE. 

THE  LIFE  AND  ADVENTURES  OF  ROBINSON  CRUSOE.  In- 
cluding a  Memoir  of  the  Author,  and  an  Essay  on  his  Writings. 
Large  12nio.  Illustrated.  Cloth,  extra.  Trice,  tl.Od. 

Carefully  printed  from  new  stereotype  plates,  with  large,  clear,  open  type, 
this  is  the  best,  as  well  as  the  cheapest,  edition  of  this  charming  work  pub- 
lished. 

"  Perhaps  there  exists  no  work,  either  of  instruction  or  entertainment,  in 
the  Knglish  language,  which  has  been  inure  generally  read  and  i.u.re  uni- 
versally admired,  than  'The  Lii'e  and  Adventures  of  Bob insou  Crusoe.'  it 
Is  difficult  to  say  in  what  the  charm  consists,  by  which  persons  of  nil  classes 
and  denominations  are  thus  fascinated;  yet  the  majority  of  readers  will  re- 
collect it  as  among  the  first  works  that  awakened  and  interested  their  youth- 
ful attention,  and  feel, even  in  ndvanced  )i  e  and  in  the  maturity  ot  'their 
understanding,  that  there  are  still  associated  With  Hohinson  Crusoe  the  sen- 
timents peculiar  to  that  period,  when  all  is  bright,  which  the  experience  of 
after-life  tends  only  to  darken  and  destroy."— i'ir  Walter  Scott. 

JEAN  RODOLPHE  WYSS. 

THE  SWISS  FAMILY  ROBINSON;  or,  The  Adventures  of  a 
Father,  Mother,  and  four  Sons,  on  a  Desert  Island.  Two  parts, 
complete  in  one  volume,  illustrated.  Large  12mo.  Cloth,  extra 
Price,  $1.50. 

GRIMM. 

POPULAR   GERMAN    TALES    AND   HOUSEHOLD   STORIES. 

Collected  by  the  Brothers  Grimm.    With  nearly  200  illusira- 

.    tions  by  Edward  H.  Wehnert.    Complete  in  one  volume.    New 

edition.    Fine  English  cloth,  bev.  bds.,  full  gilt  back  and  side 

stamp,  $2.50;  half  calf,  gilt,  &1.50. 

The  stories  in  these  volumes  are  world-renowned,  and  they  will  continue 
to  be  read,  as  they  long  have  been,  in  different  languages,  and  to  charm  and 
delight  not  only  the  young,  but  many  readers  in  mature  liie  who  love  the 
recollections  of  childhood  and  its  innocent  diversions. 

COUNTESS  DE  SEGUR. 

FRENCH  FAIRY  TALES.  Translated  by  Mrs.  Coleman  and  her 
daughters.  With  ten  full-page  illustrations,  by  Gustave  Dore 
and  Jules  Didier.  lOmo,  price,  $1.50. 

The  Countess  de  Besmr,  the  authoress  of  this  charming  work,  and  the 
mother  of  the  wife  Of  the  French  ambassador  at  Florence,  the  brilliant  Ba- 
rone's  Malaret,  is  iv  Knssian  lady,  and  a  daughter  of  the  heroic  Prince 
Kostopchin.  who  ordered  the  burning  of  Moscow,  when  Napoleon  captured 
that  devoted  c't  v. 

"Not  many  of  the  fniry  stories  written  for  children  nre  so  admirably  con- 
trived or  so  charmingly  written  as  these."—  Worcester  Daily  Spy. 


PORTER  A  COAXES'  PUBLICATIONS.        13 

W.  S.  GILBERT. 

THE  BAB  BALLADS;  or,  MuHi  Sound  and  Little  Sonsr\  With 
in  illustrations  by  the  autuor.  bg^uaro  liinio.,  cloth,  bev.  gilt 
edges,  v-l.jo. 

T  .  M  r.  ;Iiads,  first  published  in  periodicals,  rapidly  achieved  a  whim- 
sical popularity,  winch  soon  demanded  tueir  publication  in  a  collected 
loriu.  Much  of  this  is  due  to  the  series  ot  inexpressibly  funny  drawings 
by  the  author,  who  is  happy  in  being  iirtist  enough  to  Interpret  Lis  own 
humor  in  these  admirable  sketches:  \ve  piiy  the  man  who  cannot 
appreciate  and  enjoy  them.  Tlie  Ballads  will  rank  wiih  the  1 
Thackeray,  Bon  (Jaultier,  or  Ingoldsby.  Let  every  one  who  in  these  dull 
timers  has  Hie  blues,  procure  a  copy  us  the  cheapest  remedy.  While  it  is  a 
nearly  penect/o«  simile  of  the  English  copy,  it  is  only  half  the  price. 


ot'mr*  are  smply  amusing  from  their  supreme  asurty.  The  mirth  is 
aided  by  the  author's  original  cuts,  which  are  quite  in  keeping  with  the 
poetry."— Advance,  Chicago,  the  Great  .Religious  Weekly. 

C.  M.  METZ. 

DRAWING-BOOK  OF  THE  HUMAN  FIGURE.  With  many  Ex- 
amples from,  the  best  studies  of  the  Old  Masters,  beautifully 
engraved  in  the  first  style  of  the  art.  Folio,  half  morocco,  an- 

ticitie,  £7.50. 

H.  B.  STAUNTON. 

THE  AMERICAN"  CHESS  PLAYER'S  HANDBOOK.     Teaching 
the  liudimeiits  of  tlie  Game,  and  giving  an  analysis  of  all  the 
recognized  openings,  amplitied  by  appropriate  games  actually 
played  by  Morphy,  Horwitz,  Ander.s.sen,  Staunton,  Paulson, 
Montgomery,  Meek,  and  others.    From  the  work  of  atauntou. 
Illustrated.    IGmo,  cloth,  extra,  bev.  bds.    $1.23. 
"  Among  the  great  wants  of  students  of  t  his  noble  game  of  chess  has  been 
ahundbook  wliuM  f-houul  o  cupy  11  midd:e  ground  between  the  large  aiid 
expensive  work  oi'Siauntoii  and  the  ton  cent  guides  with  which  the  country 
is  .ljodt-'d.    This  want  is  happily  supplied  by  the  present  volume.    I 
abridgment  of  Btaunton'a  work,  and  contains  full  accounts  and  descriptions 
of  the  common  openings  find  defences,  besides  a  large  number  of  illustra- 
tive prames  and  several  ending*  and  problems.    It  is  a  book  which  will  be 
decidedly  useful  to  all  beginners  in  the  game,  and  iuteresliug  to  those  who 
are  a' ready  proficient  in  it."— Pfnria  Trtaucrtpt, 

"Will  prove  an  invaluable  guide  for  the  admirers  of  the  great  and  strnte- 
•le  of  chess.    It  siiould  be  hi  tlie  hands  of  every  chess-player."— 
:>nrg  Republican. 

"  Jt  is  the  b"st  manual  for  the  heplrmpr  with  which  we  are  acquainted,— 
exCeedhigly  clear  and  iutelhgible."— Aeu;  Orleans  ficayune. 

SAHAH  E.  SCOTT. 

EVETIY-DAY  COOKERY.  FOT1  EVERY  FAMILY.  Containing 
nearly  luOJ  i:cceipts  udaptcd  to  moderuto  incomes,  and  «.-..ia- 
i.ri-iin"  the  best  and  most  economical  methods  of  roasting, 
boiling,  broiling  and  stewing  all  kinds  of  m>a:,  lisU,  poultry, 
cams  and  vegetables;  simple  and  inexpensive  instructions 
Ur  mailing  pies,  puddinas,  tarts,  and  all  other  pastry  ;  ho\v  to 
pickle  and  preserve  fruits  and  vegetables;  suitable  cookery 
Ijr  i-ivalids  and  children;  food  in  season,  and  how  to  • 
if  fie  best  ways  to  make  domestic  wines  and  syrti; 
ample  receipts  for  l>read,  cake,  soups,  gravies,  satire's,  dess,  rts, 
jollies,  brandiod  fruits, soaps,  perfumes,  &C.,  Ac,,nnd  lull  direc- 
tions for  carving.  Illustrated.  lOuio.,  cloth.  Price, 


It         PORTER  4  COATES'  PUBLICATIONS. 

MISS  WETHERILL. 

ROBIXSOX  CRrsOF/S  FARM  YARD;  or.  Stories  and  Anecdotes 
<>t'  Aiiiuials.  Illustrating  their  Hablu.    By  Miss  \Vciherill,  au- 
thor of   "\Vide,    Wide    World,"    "  <^ueeehy,"    "Kllcn     Mont- 
•;iery's  Book  Shelf,"  A.C.    With  ciuht  lull-page  illustrations. 
Square  li;mo,  ±N  pp.,  cloth,  gilt,  -1J  ". 

COXTKVTS.— The  Cow  ;  The  Horse;  The  Chamois:  Tho  Camel :  Tlio  llcin- 
i  he  J>n-r;    The  .Monkey;  The  P.dar  r.ear:  The    B 

:    The  Squirrel;   The  Tiger;   The  Elephant;  The 

Sh"ep;   Tin-   Krmine;    The  Lion;  The  Seal:  The  Stag;  The  Hyena;  The 
Ilog:  The  Hare;  The  Cut. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

THE  LIBRARY  ;  or,  What  Books  to  Read,  and  TTow  to  Buy  thorn. 
A  few  practical  hints,  by  an  old  Book  buyer.  iGmo,  paper  eo\  i-r, 
lo  cents  per  copy  ;  >s.nt»  per  hundred. 

Kvcryboily  has  felt  tlie  want  of  a  reliable  guide  in  selecting  hooks  for  their 
library     111  this  little  manual,  the  author  has  endeavored  i;i>:,  in  a  prelimi- 

£«ay,  to  point  OOt  hOW  to  read  books  to  the  best  advam. 

to  buy  tin-in :  second,  what  books  to  buy,  by  giving   1  iiitren 

hundred  volumes  of  standard  works,  such  as  are  necessary  to  every  well- 
•I  library;  these  an-  given  with  the  number  of  volumes,  the  best  and 
different  editions,  and  the  prices.  It  thus  forms  a  complete  and  intelligent 
guide,  as  to  what  is  best  to  buy  first, such  as  every  person  of  any  pretensions 
to  literary  taste  should  possess. 

THOUGHTS  OF  PEACE;  or.Ptrontr  TTopo  and  Consolation  for  the 
Bearer  of  the  Cross.  From  tlielaM  London  edition.  Beauti- 
fully printed  on  tinted  paper,  with  carmine  border.  Square. 
lOmo.  Fiiie  Euglisu  cloth,  bevelled  boards,  red  edges,  $1..JO. 

"Remarkable  as  the  assertion  is.  that  very  many  of  the  best  works  are 
the  product  of  the  chastened  and  milk-led  in  society,  it  is  nevi  rthcless  true 
that  the  world  is  greatly  ciiric-lird  by  the  presence  of  invalid  uifted  mini!.;  in 
all  ages.    This  dclightiul  little  volume  is  the  product  of  one  who  has  lelt  the 
acuteness  of  disease,  and  it  illustrates  the  experience  of  one  who  1,. 
been  an  invalid.    The  Scriptural  texts,  and  poetic  suggestions,  evinc. 
acquaintance  with  the  scriptures  and  the  poets.    Tin-  book  is  beautifully 
printed  on   tinted  paper,  n  d  line  border,  and  richly  bound,    ilauy  would 
pj-ize  it  as  a  gut  book.''— 1'iltsbury  Gu 

"  This  is  a  reprint  from  the  latest  London  edition,  ami  is  a  beautiful  little 
Work,  both  In  Style  of  typography  and  binding,  ami  in  tne  senuniei 
ciqusly  selected  and  collated  from  the.  sacred  Scriptures  and  poets.  It  com- 
prises three  hundred  and  sixty-tiveot  the  most  soul-comforting  and  Inspiring 
i'  the  nible— one  lor  each  day  of  the  year.  Following  each  text  is  a 
Short  selection  from  some  hymn,  or  sacred  poem  of  Corresponding  senti- 
ment. .No  better  souvenir  could  be  given  to  one  having  experienced  some 
Of  life's  sorrows— and  who  ha*  not!— and  who  has  learned  to  look  for  con- 
solation to  Holy  Writ."— Muuch  Chunk  Gazette. 

PAPA'S  BOOK  OF  AXTMALS.  Wild  and  Tame.  Chiefly  from 
the  writings  i>f  IJi-v.  .1.  <i.  WOOD  and  Tn  v.  With 

sixteen  large  and  spirited  drawlncs,  by  II.  c.  i;<>phain.    >small 
4to.,  fine  English  cloth,  gilt,  bev.  bds.    Price,  ?! 

SLOVENLY  PETER;  or,  Cheerful  Stories  and  Funny  Pictures  for 
d    Little   1'olks.      \\illi    nearly    two    hundr.d    enurax  ii.u's. 
.iitil'ully   colored.      Printed    on    heavy    ].aj>er.      l.aiL;e    Ho. 
( 'loth,  bevelled  boards,  extra,  ?\.~~>. 

A  new  edition  of  this  charming  book,  a  standard  among. juveniles,    surely 
of  stern  morality  and  humanity  were  never  more  pleasantly  anil 
effectually  taught  than  in  this  book. 


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